After reading Plato's allegory and conducting some online research to better understand this concept and how it is applied to literary works, explain how Stranger Than Fiction can be interpreted allegorically in light of the timeless debate of free will versus fate, defined as "the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power."
After watching Stranger than Fiction, I can conclude that it can be seen in an allegorical way for the debate of free will vs. fate. As soon as the film starts, the narrator tells the audience this is a story about the two protagonists of the story, Harold Crick and his wristwatch. As the movie continues the audience observes Karen Eiffel, the narrator, author, controls all aspects of Harold’s life and tells them as they are happening. This is a symbol for an almighty being, God, who has the power to control our destinies. Once Harold learns he is going to die from the voice in his head, he contacts Professor Hilbert to try and determine what kind of story he is living in. Once the professor realizes that Harold is living in a tragedy, the professor tells Harold that it is his life and to live it how he wants. If Harold wants to eat pancakes every day, he should eat pancakes every day. For this reason, I believe that the Professor can be viewed symbolically as Harold’s mentor or leader of free will. Ana Pascal, the anarchist baker, portrays a major significance in Harold’s life. I believe Ana can be seen as one of the enlightened characters in Plato’s “Allegory of a Cave”. She holds some of the responsibility of Harold’s dramatic change from a paper pushing IRS agent to a guitar picking, cookie eating, soft spoken man.
ReplyDeleteI believe the ending to the film holds the most significance to the debate. After Harold has tracked down Karen Eiffel, God, he gets to read the entire book from cover to cover and learns how he will meet his fate. Once he has read the entire novel, he returns to Eiffel’s house and tells her not to change the book and to publish it how it is. Harold then realizes that saving the little boy’s life that falls in front of the bus is more important than his own life. Once Harold is lying on the pavement with blood leaking from his broken body, the frame shoots to Karen Eiffel meeting Professor Hilbert, in which she informs him that she has changed the ending of the novel. When he questions why, she responds that people who sacrifice their life for someone else are the people you want living around you. No matter what conclusion you make personally there is enough evidence to support either side of the debate.