Destiny in Human Life in the Films Grand Canyon, Ground Hog Day and Christmas Carol - Essay Example

Destiny in Human Life The whether human life is a matter of chance or pre-destined is a hot topic for debate among theologians. Chance happening is an incident is one in which no reason can be identified to explain its purpose or cause. It is also called an accidental event. “Destiny implies that there is some Power which decrees or determines the course of events beforehand” (Is Destiny a Matter of Choice or A Matter of Chance?). Destiny often refers to pre-ordained course of events. In another sense, destiny is the pre-determined future of an individual. Many people believe that destiny is a preset course of events that is unavoidable and inflexible. Some regard it as fate which is something bound to happen. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has become theme for many films because it is “a story that hits us somewhere deep down in our psyches, hence why we come back to it time and again.” (Jones, 1999). The events in the film reiterate the belief in destiny. The main character Ebenezer Scrooge is an old, bitter miser who works as a financier. He has only one aim in life that is to accumulate as much wealth as possible. The drastic changes this character undergoes, over the course of one evening is the story’s plot. His business partner, Jacob Marley, died seven years ago. While Scrooge and his clerk Bob Cratchit work in the counting-house, his nephew Fred enters to wish and invite him to Christmas dinner. Scrooge treats his nephew with contempt by saying, “Bah! Humbug”. (Jones, 1999). Afterwards two portly-sized gentlemen come, asking donations for charity; Scrooge snubs them also. In the evening he goes back to the small suite where he lives, which is very cold and unfurnished. When he opens the door, instead of his door keeper he sees the ghostly face of Jacob Marley, who died seven years ago. This is just the beginning of the traumatic night for Scrooge. He hears very strange noises inside the house. While Scrooge eats his gruel, the ghost of Marley appears. He has come to warn Scrooge that he should reform otherwise he might have the same fate of Marley who is damned to walk in the earth in repentance. Marley informs scrooge that he has a chance to escape his fate by acting according to the directions of three spirits who would visit him one by one that night. At exactly twelve o’clock he wakes up when the church bells strike twelve. A spirit who introduces himself as the ‘ghost of Christmas past’ appears before scrooge and takes him to some of the saddest and happiest moments in Scrooge’s past life that probably shaped the current Scrooge. In his Christmas past, he revisits his younger days as an apprentice, when he spurns his ladylove for wealth. The maltreatment by his father and death of his sister, the only person who showed sympathy for him, unfold before him. After the return of the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge falls asleep but wakes up at one o’ clock to find the Ghost of Christmas Present. The ghost of Christmas Present shows him happiness all around him especially in his employee’s house, while he is totally grumpy. The chance of untimely death for Tim, the crippled son of his servant has a tremendous effect on scrooge. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appears before scrooge after the return of the Ghost of Christmas Present. In Christmas future, he has prognosis of his own end. He sees the cold reactions of people on his death. Scrooge learns that he may be able to avoid the future which has been shown, if he changes. All these have an incredible effect on his psyche and he resolves to become a kind hearted and compassionate person. He undergoes complete personality transformation and becomes appreciated and accepted by all. This film explores the mind of a financier. It has an upbeat ending in that the protagonist changes for the better and thus brings joy to all. It was Scrooge’s destiny that he would have to undergo a lot of trials and tribulations and sleepless nights before coming to terms with his true self. In destiny, there is no accidental event, no chance nor any choice because it is all pre-determined. The events in the life of Scrooge as it unfold clearly shows everything is pre-determined. He doesn’t have any choices. The unfavorable circumstances in his early life molded scrooge into a hard hearted person. But over the course of one evening, with the intervention of some supernatural power, he undergoes a transformation into a caring and lovable person. In the film “Groundhog Day,” the protagonist Phil (Bill Murray) is trapped in a place called Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania due to snow slides where he had gone to cover the Groundhog Day. In a bizarre turn of events, he gets trapped in ‘time loop’ in which each day repeats the day before it, and each day seemed to be exactly like the previous one. In this movie, the hero is trapped in a small town due to chance. Although he wants to escape, he is not able to do so. He gets frustrated and attempts to commit suicide several times but fails in all his attempts and finds himself exactly as in the previous day. It is chance that delays his departure from this town. He kills the groundhog, hoping to end the impasse. The protagonist is at first bewildered with the state of events, and resorts to funny acts, but soon he decides to do good things in order that the day to be different from the earlier one. Finally, when he becomes good, everything falls in place. The underlying allegory in the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ is that if we can look beyond refusals and dislikes in our daily lives, and accept our lives as they are and not the way we want them to be, we would be leading more happy and contended lives. Because it is destiny that decides the path our lives should take. In this case the protagonist begins to use his knowledge of how the day will progress to help people. Since he is aware of the fact that a child will always fall from a tree at a certain time, he is there to catch the child every time. Knowing that a man will choke on his meal, he is there to save him. He gradually undergoes a change of heart and becomes able to understand the sufferings of others, since he also had suffered. He turns into a local hero in Punxsutawney. In other words, having resigned to the fatality of living and learning the happiness in collective living he is no longer like all those people who fear lifes travails, and try to use the weather forecast, by human or groundhog, to control events. We find in this film that, in the beginning, Phil is negatively portrayed, but due to the occurrences of several chance happenings, he begins to be loved and respected by everyone in that town. ”What is so powerful about Groundhog Day is the way it lets us experience what it would be like to make a breakthrough like this in our own lives. The movie shows us a character who is like the worst in ourselves. He is arrogant and sarcastic, absorbed in his own discomforts, without hope, and cut off from other people. Like us, he finds himself in an inexplicable situation, seemingly, a plaything of fate. But, unlike us, he gets the luxury of being stuck in the same day until he gets it right. Whereas most of us go semi-automatically through most of our (very similar) days, he is forced to stop and treat each day like a world onto itself, and decide how to use it”. (Transparency: Groundhog Day: Breakthrough to the True Self). The role of destiny in his transformation is thus clearly manifested. Eventually, he regains his originality and that could only be set free by exiling himself. Like many childhood heroes, he can only win the battle by trapping himself... Inevitably, the movie also has mythic connotations and literary flavor. Phil’s character experiences some combination of suffering and courage, until he metamorphoses into a new state of wisdom. He shows deep kindness; although he is in the world, he does not form part of it, and endures pain and suffering in order to mitigate the plight of the people around him, and in his quest for a second lease of life, he is inspired by the affection of a lovely woman. In the final scenes, he and his new mate are seen walking together out of the guest house into the new, snow-draped day, he remarks, with his new verve for life: "It’s so beautiful -- Let’s live here. Then, after the obligatory expression of love, he adds: "Well rent to start." (Ramis, 1993). Thus we find that the element of chance is very much prevalent in this film. Phil’s character undergoes a change due to circumstances wherein he has no choice but to do good deeds because he was destined to do them. And, in the end, a respected and loved Phil, emerges from it. This is very much akin to Ebenezer Scrooge’s character in “Christmas Carol “ The film Grand Canyon deals with both mystery of chance and destiny. In the “Grand Canyon" the protagonist, Mac (Kevin Kline) is a white man. Once he is saved from muggers in a black dominated area by a Negro tow truck driver called Simon (Danny Glover) One of the muggers has a gun and wanted to kill Mac, but Simon intervenes and saves his life. “The dialogues in this scene, and throughout the movie, does not simply exist to push along the plot. It is the way we really think and talk in various situations.” (Roger, 1992). Thus we find that chance plays an important life in Mac’s Destiny. Although they are from different social back-grounds, they become friends because Mac is grateful to Simon for having saved his life. The bonding between man and man, irrespective of color and socio-economic disparities is in evidence. Mac’s wife, (Mary MacDonnell), while jogging, comes across an abandoned baby and is determined to adopt it. Mac objects to this, but, at this time Simon intervenes and Mac’s wife has her way. This is another element of chance and destiny which shapes the future of the child now in the care of Mac’s wife. Mac’s wife becomes a surrogate mother for an abandoned orphan, which also speaks about human destiny. .The chance meeting between the baby and Mac’s wife results in a change of destiny of the child. Another friend of Mac, Davis (Steve Martin), is a film maker who made violence oriented films. After a mugger shoots him in the leg, he realizes the pain which violence has caused and then resolves to stop making violent films and devotes the rest of his film career making philosophical movies. The film explores how events in each of the characters life have dramatic importance, how they are affected by it and the effect this has on their lives and interaction with each other. Beneath the underlying current of destiny of Mac, his wife, his friend Simon, the orphan child and Mac’s another friend, Davies; the element of chance is present. It was sheer chance that helped to shape their destinies since they were all put into certain trying situations and they emerged triumphant from it. In Mac’s case it was a close encounter with death. In his friend Simon’s case, it was saving Mac’s life from muggers, thus paving the way for a lifelong friendship with him. In the case of Mac’s friend, Davies, we find that he was a maker of violent films. A chance encounter with a mugger who shoots him in the leg changes his view of life and he starts making philosophical films. (Kasdam and Grillo, ) The main objective of the film is “to break down the barriers between people” (Roger, 1992). It also explores the risks involved in living in big cities and how even strangers could become friends. In the end, all the important characters assemble before the Great Canyon, a place that is big enough to accommodate all their separate lives together. The film has strong roots in human relationships and this has also been portrayed well by the characters. Gilgamesh Now, coming to the stories, the first one “Gilgamesh is one of the oldest recorded stories in the world. It tells the story of an ancient King of Uruk, Gilgamesh, who may have actually existed, and whose name is on the Sumerian King List”. (Gilgamesh Study Guide). He is believed to have lived in third millennium BC and built the wall in Uruk to protect the people. He is a not a good king, draining his people with construction activities and womanizing. He compels all the residents in the country to participate in the construction activities such as building of walls and temples which are intended to secure him an eternal celebrity status. Gods become furious and create Enkidu. In the fight between Enkidu and Gilgamesh, the latter defeats the former and both become close friends. They, together, change the world order by killing Humbaba and Bull of Heaven. Gods retaliate by killing Enkidu. Gilgamesh, upset by the death of his best friend, seeks ways to live forever. He undergoes great tribulations in order to achieve immortality but fails to achieve his object and dies. The story of Gilgamesh confirms the belief that destiny is predetermined. Augustine He is a fourth century Christian philosopher. He is renowned for the atheistic contributions to western philosophy. “He is the first Western philosopher to promote what has come to be called the argument by analogy: there are bodies external to mine that behave as I behave and that appear to be nourished as mine is nourished; so, by analogy, I am justified in believing that these bodies have a similar mental life to mine”. (The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Augustine, 354-450). He believed that life is predestined. Humans are not capable of moral behavior because of the original sin. Moreover, without the grace of god, humans cannot be moral. Thus there is the hand of God in what ever a human does. So Augustine also believes that individual’s life is predetermined. Buddha “Buddha was born approximately 560 B.C. in the land of Northern India. Through his life, Buddha gave the concept of Nirvana an unprecedented exposure to a large portion of the Eastern world with his achievement of and subsequent teachings about the state of enlightenment”. (Gautama Buddha). Buddha shows little concern for religious ceremonies. He tries to find out why mind gets disturbed. One day, he sees an old man, sick man, a dead body and a monk. He becomes very sad when he sees the old man, sick man and the corpse and feels that he would also become a victim to old age, disease and death. He sees the peacefulness and the vibrant personality of the sage. He then decides to renounce the worldly life which is full of miseries and sorrows. Many others have seen such things but it didn’t change them. But it is destined that he should become a sage and founder of one of the largest religions in the world. There are several contrasting visions that are found in the films Grand Canyon, Ground Hog Day and Christmas Carol. In Grand Canyon, the protagonist Phil, a white man was saved from certain death by a black stranger. Phil’s son leaves for college and the house becomes lonely for his wife. The contrasting adoption of an orphan child from the bushes signifies that her home is once again filled with happiness. Phil’s friend, Davies was a movie-maker depicting violence on screen. The contrast occurs when he is shot at and injured, thereby making him to turn to philosophical movies. Coming next to Ground Hog Day, the hero Phil is a very arrogant and sarcastic person, but through trials and tribulations, he becomes gentle, warm and loving very much like. Next, coming to the film, ‘Christmas Carol’ the main character, Ebenezer Scrooge is seen initially as a bitter, hard hearted person. Scrooge finally reforms into a generous and thoughtful person, caring about the feelings and fragilities of others. As regards which story expresses the mystery of human destiny better than others, I think Charles Dicken’s ‘A Charles Carol’ has slight weight over others. The main protagonist in the story, Ebenezer Scrooge- a bitter, hardhearted miser- undergoes a complete metamorphosis that he becomes a considerate, kind hearted person and is appreciated and loved by everyone. This complete transformation is almost unbelievable. Works cited Christmas Carol. Dir. Jones, David Hugh. RHI Entertainment, 1999. Groundhog Day. Dir. Ramis, Harold. Columbia Pictures, 1993. Grand Canyon. Dir. Kasdam, Lawrence and Grillo, Michael. 20th Century Fox, 1992. Is Destiny a Matter of Choice or A Matter of Chance? 2 Feb. 2007 . A Christmas Carol (1999). 2 Feb. 2007 . Transparency: Groundhog Day: Breakthrough to the True Self. 4 Feb. 2007 . Ebert Roger, Grand Canyon, 1992. 3 Feb. 2007 . Gilgamesh Study Guide. 4 Feb. 2007 . The Internet Encyclopedia of philosophy: Augustine (354-450). 3 Feb. 2007 . Gautama Buddha. 2 Feb. 2007 . Read More