Rachel Reff
2/11/13
A
Decided Fate
Right off from the beginning of the work, “The White
Castle,” portrays its theme of the book; fate. The narrator of the story opens
the book with an introduction dealing with the ‘inevitable.’ “Many men believe
that no life is determined in advance, that all stories are essentially a chain
of coincidences. And yet, even those who believe this come to the conclusion,
when they look back, that events they once took for chance were really
inevitable.” (p.13) The narrator continuously tells you right off the bat what
happens to him, step by step. He reminisces about his past and emphasizes
dramatically about each action that he makes. Such as when he tells everyone in
Instanbul that he is doctor, he expects better treatment than the other slaves.
He speaks of how his studies and intelligence get him better things, such as
being good friend with the pasha. This eventually does give him better
treatment as a prisoner and better things in life. As a reaction to him telling
people that he is a doctor, and astronomer and so on, his life greatly changes;
which was brought upon because of fate.
I agree with you that a common theme in this book is fate. Constantly the narrator is questioning his life had fate took a different turn. He traces all of the events of his life back to the moment on the ship when the captain, in a moment of weakness, did not have the slaves whipped to sail the ship faster. Had this moment of weakness never occurred, the fate of the narrator would've been completely different. So although the narrator believes he was destined to become a slave to Hoja, there is another idea that a choice can create multiple destinies for a person.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, what you said about his talents as a reader show that the events of his life had prepared him to save himself from slavery. It is true that everything he had done in his life until that point that helped him become a person who was of use to the Turkish people. Overall I agree with the author of this post that a common theme of this novel is the fate of the Venetian.