World Literature Final

Three Literary Geniuses Exploring Fundamental Moral and Philosophical Questions

The of free will and personal choice has occupied the minds of for centuries . Art and literature can not exist separately from life and the question about predetermination of our life and freedom of choice became fundamental for , interested in human nature motivation and choices people make in everyday life . All these questions are so important for every author because they are closely related to the question of search for the life meaning , which is a fundamental question for any kind of

art . Different authors can express different opinions on these subjects but they can not escape it if they want to make a survey into human physiology and make their characters interesting for their readers . Borges , Tolstoy and Dostoevsky have different visions on the role external constraint has on human life They all tried to answer the question of correlation of free will and determination and each of them developed his own philosophical system which became the source for creativity and inspiration

Forge Luis Borges is occupied with the attempts to find the life meaning but in most cases his characters cannot succeed in finding the answer Borges believes in multiple variants , which all are present at the same time . The main character in The Garden of Forking Paths centers on the time as a changeable value . He believed in an infinite series of times , in a growing , dizzying net of divergent , convergent and parallel times . This network of times which approached one another , forked , broke off , or were unaware of one another for centuries , embraces all possibilities of time (Borges , 38 ) Such a model of world creates an endless number of possibilities since each our choice places us to the alternative Universe we choose and if to take into account that we make several hundred of choices per day we can understand that we determine our future with each of the choices . Such a concept makes a strong accent on the events , which now take place . The past is doubtful , the future is not determined and the only thing people possess is the present moment and the choices they make during this moment influence their future and change their past . That everything happens to a man precisely , precisely , now " - states one of Borges ' characters (Borges 40

At the same time the theme of determination greatly influences Borges works . Yu Tsun believes that his future is predetermined . He also believes in the power of the works of art , which can reveal certain variants of reality . That is one the main ideas expressed by Borges , to my mind . He believes that the art doesn 't only reflect the reality , but also forms it

Lev Tolstoy also explores the theme of free will and determination . His views differ from those , presented by Borges . Tolstoy centers on the past believing that it determines our future and he spends a lot of time investigating the powers , which influence the destinies...