Freedom of Choice in the Literature - Essay Example

Your Number October 2006 Freedom of Choice Literature seeks to show us a reflection of the world through a mirror of make believe; fiction is sometimes called the lie that tells the truth, and the stories we have read this semester all tell their own truths. One constant in literature is the idea that characters must make decisions that influence their lives. Sometimes their choices have positive outcomes; sometimes they don’t. Often, characters, just like people in real life, make decisions without having a clear sense of their outcomes, but they choose nonetheless. In fiction, as in life, people choose their own paths. In some stories, the choices are more obvious than others. Updike’s “A & P” focuses entirely on the events leading up to Sammy’s life-changing decision. Although he does say, “it seems to me that once you begin a gesture its fatal not to go through with it” (Updike 18), his original decision was based on his own personal worldview, in his appreciation of beauty. Although Sammy only makes a single choice in this short story, it is the choice that feels right to him. His manager even tries to persuade him to take another path, but Sammy refuses. In fact, in this case, to recant his decision would be to allow someone else to choose his fate. Although he knows his choices will make life hard, he deliberately chooses not the path that will make things hard, but the path that will ensure he does not turn into the story’s final image: Lengel, “His face…dark gray and his back stiff, as if hed just had an injection of iron” (Updike 19). Sammy is choosing his own freedom, along with all its attendant difficulties. Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” paints a picture of a thirty-five year old woman who might seem somewhat trapped in her own life. However, the story shows that Elisa is still a strong woman who can make choices for herself. Although she says of the life of a tinker in a wooden caravan, “It must be very nice. I wish women could do such things” (Steinbeck 258), she knows that she can do anything the visitor can do. Further, she has the power of her magic “planters’ hands” (Steinbeck 254). This is a woman who has already chosen her fate in life and seems very comfortable with it. She can dress up and go into town with her husband; he won’t make her watch the fights. While she can’t control what the tinker does with her chrysanthemum cuttings, she can take charge in the small world she has created with her husband. “No One’s a Mystery” by Elizabeth Tallent uses a tiny snapshot to show the reader the projected course of an entire relationship. This story very much highlights ways in which we can make bad decisions by simply ignoring reality. Jack tries to make the narrator feel as if her future is a foregone conclusion, and she believes this to be the case as well, although she sees a different one. Again, she makes her choice based on her own appraisal of what’s important in life. Jack is obviously older and wiser and when he says that baby’s “breath would smell like your milk, and its kind of a bittersweet smell, if you want to know the truth” (Tallent 271), we understand that his appraisal of the relationship’s future is probably more apt. The narrator, although she is crammed next to the wheel well of a pickup truck, is not trapped; she is choosing a path despite evidence that suggests it will not have the intended outcome. Her fate depends directly on her choices. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” often provokes fear in the reader. There is a pervasive sense of loss of control in the piece; despite the horror and revulsion of the situation, people seem powerless to choose. However, hints in the story show that the entire town has made the decision to maintain the tradition of the lottery. The second sentence in story, “The people of the village began to gather in the square” (Jackson 262) demonstrates their willingness to participate, as does the account of their acquiescent behavior there. Mr. Adams questions the process, saying “over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery” (Jackson 265) and the discussion demonstrates again that the lottery is a choice for these people. Although Tessie Hutchinson questions the outcome, she doesn’t criticize the process. The actions of the characters show they tacitly accept the lottery. They chose their path before the story began. Throughout “A Rose for Emily,” we can see Faulkner’s anti-heroine openly flaunt societal conventions and repeatedly set herself above the rest of the town. While the townspeople regard her actions and tell themselves “We believed she had to do that” (Faulkner 31) at every turn, Emily makes a conscious decision to flout convention. She is not a passive woman, and far from letting others make decisions for her, she aggressively challenges any choice that does not spring from her own desire. The Board of Aldermen she “vanquished” (Faulkner 30) and she does the same to the lover who jilted her. While the townspeople blame her eccentricities on her heritage, and Miss Emily does have some family problems to contend with, she is a woman wholly in control of her actions; the only thing she doesn’t control in the whole story is the behavior of her Yankee lover. Even in the fairy tales and fables, we can see the elements of choice as characters move through fixed worlds where they often lack any measurable degree of power. In this case, we see that the decision to walk away can be the most powerful choice available to the disenfranchised. In “The Fox and the Grapes,” the fox makes two choices. First, upon seeing the grapes, he decides that he wants to taste them. Later, when his best efforts produce no results, he decides to change his desire and think of the former prize as “sour” (Aesop 5). This is a lesson in prudence; the fox might have made other choices. He could have chosen to ignore the grapes in the beginning, in which case he and the reader would have missed out on the moral. He could also have remained dogged and not given up on the grapes, which would lead to some other moral about the futility of pursuing bad decisions. A similar theme can be found in the Grimm’s “The Godfather.” The poor man seems to have few options due to his poverty and the obscene number of children he already has. However, although his path seems spelled out after his dream, he still has a few decisions to make. First, he chooses to “undertake what the dream had shown,” (Grimm 9) and to obey the rules of the gift (whereas, there are similar fairy tales where the man decides to cure the princess when she already belongs to Death). Then he decides to visit the godfather. This is a huge decision for a fairy tale character who might otherwise decide not to look a gift horse in the mouth. As a result of this decision, he comes to some great knowledge: that the godfather is probably the devil. This allows him a final, life-saving possibility. He turns tail and runs. We may assume that this knowledge probably helps him make different decisions in the future. We look to literature for a map of our own soul. Human beings are faced with myriad decisions every day; some are inconsequential, but some lead to major life changes. In stories, the characters’ choices may seem more earth-shattering, because good fiction depends on meaningful connections, but these choices are, in reality, no different than our own. Sometimes, it’s difficult to decide which path to take and other times the path seems clear, but in either situation we have to make that decision. Works Cited Aesop. “The Fox and The Grapes.” Literature, An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 9th ed. Eds. Joe Kennedy & Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson, 2005. 5. Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” Literature, An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 9th ed. Eds. Joe Kennedy & Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson, 2005. 29-36. Grimm, Jakob and Grimm, Wilhelm. “The Godfather” Literature, An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 9th ed. Eds. Joe Kennedy & Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson, 2005. 9-11. Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Literature, An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 9th ed. Eds. Joe Kennedy & Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson, 2005. 262-9. Steinbeck, John. “The Chrysanthemums.” Literature, An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 9th ed. Eds. Joe Kennedy & Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson, 2005. 253-62. Tallent, Elizabeth. “No One’s a Mystery.” Literature, An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 9th ed. Eds. Joe Kennedy & Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson, 2005. 269-71. Updike, John. “A & P.” Literature, An introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 9th ed. Eds. Joe Kennedy & Dana Gioia. New York: Pearson, 2005. 15-19 Read More