Harold and Oedipus

In the movie "Stranger than fiction" the following questions are answered: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8- all of the above questions are answered in this movie. I choose to answer the following questions: #1, #2, #4, and #7.

Question: "Does the world shape how we think or what shapes our lives?" The world shapes both how we think and also shapes our lives. Things that happen in the world shapes what and how we think which in turn shapes our actions which then affects what we end up doing in our lives. But then again this is believing that we have the freewill or the choice to decide what we want to do with our lives. If you take out the idea of freewill- then the whole equation changes. With that in mind- even though the world may shape how we think, it won't affect what we end up doing in our lives.

Question: "Do we really know who we are and what our role is in the world?" Yes and no. The movie "Stranger than fiction" begins with Harold following the same pattern everyday and not really having any individuality and as a result not really knowing who he is. Towards the end of the movie, Harold started learning how to play the quitar and as a result he becomes more of an individual and therefore knows himself better. I think that once a person or a character knows themselves better then they know what their role is in the world better. Then again, the person could think that they are someone else entirely than who they really are and as a result things get really confusing. In that case, the person would have to find their true selves in order to know what their role (or goal) in life is. In other words- having your own goals sets who you will be in life.

Question: "Do the choices we make lead us to our fate even though we are the ones making the choices?" Yes the choices we make lead us to our fate because I think that any one person had multiple "paths" laid out before them based on the choices they could make in any one situation. So I guess, the answer is yes- that the choices we make lead us to our fate even if we're the ones making the choices.

Question: "Can we change our fate?" I think that yes we can change our fate. In the movie- "Stranger than fiction" Herald is able to change his fate because he finds the author and tells her not to kill him, but then after he finishes reading the book he tells her to keep that ending where he dies. In the end, him telling her to keep the ending where he dies, affects her in a such a way where she changes her mind and Herald doesn't die.

-katthegreat08