Saturday, April 19, 2008

Decisions Lead To Change

"Things do not change; we change." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden

A frequent question that sails into mind is this: do we ourselves cause change in our lives by making certain decisions, or are we acted upon by events that happen around us?

I agree with the former; that we as people cause change in our lives by choices. Take a look at Chairman Mao's reign over modern China: the way he governed rule and the country demonstrates this point clearly. His incredible feat of lifting China out of its backwater state of warlord rule and Western oppression owed greatly to the certain decisions that he made within his leadership. The choice to initiate The Long March in 1934-35 as GMD troops closed in on his Communist forces saved the entire political party from complete death and demise. He had been met with strong disagreement from his prior to such a decision, whom postulated that this giant retreat was outrageously cowardly and certainly not the best decision to make. Yet Mao did not allow his tenacity to abate, and pursued to carry out The Long March to save his comrades. We can therefore see that it was his decision that changed lives; we can clearly acknowledge Mao with the credit of a hero through the choice that he made.

Decades later, his choice to initiate the Cultural Revolution threw the whole country into complete chaos. His current motives at the time were to purge his political opponents, yet the chaos that followed was not catalyzed by the presence of these opponents, but instead of Mao's decision to eliminate them using brute force. Hence, this again demonstrates quite clearly that it was ultimately Mao's choice to initiate these purges that changed lives within the country on such a grand scale.

William Golding's "The Lord Of The Flies" also argues in favor of this point. Jack as the indelible desire to hunt for meat. He therefore enlists the assistance of Samneric, who happen to be tending the fire used to attract the attention of any vessels that pass their stranded island. Jack's decision to take them away from their duties in order to hunt soon leads to a missed opportunity; a ship does indeed pass the island, but because no one tended the fire because of the prospect of a hunt, the chance of certain rescue had slipped by. Therefore, it was clearly Jack's decision to initiate the hunt that affected lives the most; the missed opportunity of rescue infuriated Ralph, who excoriated Jack heavily for prioritizing hunting over the fire signal. This berating soon led to growing tensions between the two leaders, which ultimately leads to the horrific deaths at the end of the novel. Thus, from Jack's decision we can clearly see how significantly choices impact lives.

Eddie Carbone in "A View From The Bridge" completely breaks his code of honor - and even jeopardizes his personal welfare - by reporting the illegal immigrant Rodolfo, whom is scheduled to marry his niece Catherine. Eddie's unrequited love for his own niece catalyzes an insane jealousy for her, and it therefore drives him to attempt anything humanly possible to prevent her from marrying Rodolfo. Thus, he resides to reporting him to the immigration bureau, and this crucial decision under enormous pressure and irrational jealousy immediately turns his life for the worse. Rodolfo is captured, and his brother Marco swears to take revenge on Eddie for such an inhumane course of action. Eddie's obstinacy is impenetrable, leading to his death as Marco kills him. It therefore lay in Eddie's decision to report Rodolfo that ultimately causes everything; both the significant change in impression that his wife and niece have for him, and the change in his honorable character.

In conclusion, these examples from Chairman Mao Ze Dong's modernization of China, Golding's "The Lord Of The Flies", and Miller's "A View From The Bridge" clearly postulate and demonstrate that changes in our lives all owes to certain decisions that we make along the way, and not simply the events that occur around us.