Slaughterhouse-Five

Ta-En Kuo

Eng 204

Free Will versus Predetermination : Finding the Middle Way

From a very early age , people are told that they have free will . This means that they have the complete freedom to make their own choices . The idea of free will empowers human beings because it makes them believe that they can be anyone they choose to be and that they have the capability to determine their own fate and be in complete control of their own lives . Taken to extremes , some people may feel that they are masters

of the universe and there is no situation that they cannot overcome

However , as people grow up , they begin to experience failures and disappointments . They study hard yet get failing marks on their quizzes They may get partnered with classmates who will leave the project midway or meet friends who will betray them and cause them great pain . They discover roadblocks in their lives that are impossible to hurdle Contrary to what they may have been previously taught , they seem to realize that they don 't have complete freedom over their lives after all and so they start to question free will

In this , the concept of free will shall be explored in the context of the novel Slaughterhouse-Five ' by Kurt Vonnegut . Free will here refers to the philosophical idea that we have the ability to determine our own fate . This is opposed to the concept of predetermination which says that the course of things has already been...