Quest For Human Destiny Essay Research Paper

Quest For Human Destiny Essay, Research Paper

The Quest for Human Destiny

Do pure chance and accidents lead our lives or are they filled with deep purpose and destiny. This has been the question posed on our minds while watching the films Grand Canyon, Ground Hog Day, and Dickens’s Christmas Carol. How large a role do the cosmos play in our everyday lives. Do they even care about our fates. Even yet, do these so-called cosmos, higher power, or whatever one might chose to call it even exist. If there s not an ultimate source guiding us and giving our lives meaning, then what are we working towards. Why are we even here. Why were we born. Why do we die. What in the world are we supposed to do with the time in between. There are so many more questions and even more theories on how to answer them. The films mentioned above and their corresponding stories hit on a few of these theories as I will discuss in further detail.

Both the story of Gilgamesh and the film Grand Canyon deal with a loss of innocence . In the film, the cosmos don t seem to care all that much about Mac when he is almost robbed on the street corner of a bad neighborhood. Lucky for him Simon shows up just in the nick of time and after a life threatening talk with the muggers Simon drives Mac to safety in his tow truck. Whereas in the beginning the cosmos seemed impervious one could now argue that they were the ones who sent Simon to the rescue before any harm came to Mac. The cosmos had destined these two men to meet and the odd circumstances simply made the encounter more meaningful. Or of course as I said before Mac just lucked out. Nonetheless, this is where Mac s loss of innocence took place. This loss of innocence is of course in the metaphoric sense of the word because no doubt a man in his mid forties would ve lost his innocence long ago. For the first time he came face to face with the possibility of death.

Like Mac, Gilgamesh also was forced to come to terms with death but in a different way. In Mac s case its hard to be sure what role the cosmos played, while in Gilgamesh s tragedy the cosmos were directly responsible as they struck Enkidu with an illness which took his life. He is overtaken with grief for his friend but also for himself because he realizes he too will someday die. As Mac did, Gilgamesh now looses his innocence as he falls into the consciousness of mortality .

At this point both men decide its time to take full advantage of their lives, although in different manners. Mac has an overwhelming need to befriend and thank Simon in everyway possible for saving his life. He even goes as far as finding Simon the woman of his dreams. Somewhat ironically Simon and Mac become close friends, much like Gilgamesh and Enkidu had been. After being so close to death Mac embraces life and attempts to mend past mistakes. Gilgamesh on the other hand refuses to accept death and goes on a quest to find a cure to human mortality. He found it and just as quickly he lost it. A reason for this could be perhaps because his search was a selfish one. In the end this great king died like all other mortals, such was his destiny; everlasting life was not his destiny . If all the other men from the films and stories had figured out this simple fact this could be the end of this essay, but no such luck and so we continue.

After examining Phil from the film Ground Hog Day and the Buddha quite a few similarities become evident. At some point they both find themselves searching for the meaning of life, imagine that. How they get there is somewhat different though. Both were celebrities in a way. The Buddha was a prince while Phil was a reporter who carried himself as though he was a prince. Buddha was to succeed his father and become king. His father also wished him to live a perfect life free of suffering therefore Buddha was confined to the palace walls where he could lead a pleasurable life and be protected. This living arrangement soon backfired though because everybody knows curiosity killed the cat so to no surprise Buddha wanted to know what the world was like outside the palace gates. What he found when he ventured out in the real world was not what he expected. After three journeys he discovered old age, sickness and death. It was way too much for him to bear. Upon returning to the palace he was unable to enjoy his riches now that he had knowledge of the suffering of the world. So, like all the greats, he set out on a quest for an answer to the problem of mortality.

Phil, on the other hand, had no choice. His quest for meaning in life was thrown on his lap and there was no way to get rid of it, for a while at least. Phil had a warped sense of reality to begin with. He wasn t by any means a people person . Unlike the Buddha, who was compassionate and selfless from the get go, Phil started out only out for himself. His outlook in life very likely included the phrase, screw the little people. This could very well be the reason why destiny trapped Phil in the same day over and over again. If this was not destiny s work trying to teach a selfish man a lesson what other explanation is there. After many unsuccessful suicide attempts, Phil felt no need to find the answer to mortality like Buddha did. What was the point in that. He was immortal and he wanted to enjoy by doing as many things without consequence as possible. No doubt that soon got a tad boring, which is why