Destiny

Destiny

Every hero must leave on a journey to find their path. It is a motif of all literature. Both Siddhartha and John Grady Cole were at a stand still in their lives when the book starts. Siddhartha in Siddhartha by Herman Hesse has mastered his current life and it still has not brought him happiness. John Grady Cole in All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy has lost the ranch he intended to run and has no reason to stay in Texas. Both characters decide to set out on a journey and find their destiny. The way each character views destiny is key to how each character approaches life. Cole exhibits a passive attitude toward life in the beginning of the book and an active attitude toward life by the end. From this, it can be deduced that Cole is waiting for his destiny to unfold before him in the beginning, and attempting to control his destiny by the end. On the other hand, Siddhartha displays a very active approach toward life. Only toward the end does Siddhartha learn to stop searching and let life take him on his journey. In other words, in the beginning, Siddhartha is controlling his destiny while in the end he lets go. As the books unfold, both protagonists change their view on destiny, maturing in opposite directions. This opposite maturation can be used to demonstrate the difference between Western and Eastern philosophy.

Cole starts without a path. On page 230, he says he believes in fate. However, in the beginning of the book he passively waits for his fate to come to him. He does not know what he wants to do in life. He believed his destiny was to own the family ranch. Now, this is not an option. Cole, with his friend Rawlins, decides to travel on a journey to Mexico. When his friend Rawlins questions Cole about why they should go, Cole says, "What the hell reason you got for stayin?"(27, McCarthy). Cole has no reason to be in Texas anymore. He has no plans for his trip to Mexico. He leaves on this journey to find something; he does not know what, in Mexico.

This relaxed sentiment, this idea that his destiny will come to him causes Cole to be willing to accept new, unexpected events on his journey. He has no intention of traveling with a second companion. However, he does not complain when Blevins joins him. He has no intention of falling in love. However, when he sees Allejandra, he does. His affair begins after Cole has fallen in love with her. She arrives at his room in the middle of the night. "Tell me what to do, he said, I'll do anything you want" (140). Cole has fallen in love with her. Yet, he does not seek Allejandra out. He waits for destiny to unfold before him and passively allows Allejandra to decide if their relationship is meant to be.

In All the Pretty Horses, Alejandra's grandaunt gives two descriptions of destiny: "Ð'...a tossed coin that was at one time a slug in a mint and the coiner who took that slug from the tray and placed it in the die in one of two ways and from whose act all else followed, cara y cruz" (230). The coiner is completely ignorant to the fact that his decision to place the coin in one of two ways will decide the fate of others. The second description is that "Ð'...the world has always been a puppet show. But when one looks behind the curtain he finds they terminate in the hands of yet other puppets, themselves with their own strings that trace upward in turn, and so on" (231). These two descriptions have similar themes to them. They both support pre-destiny. They both say that the life of a single person is controlled by the actions of another, knowingly or unknowingly. But Cole is a cowboy, a rugged individualist, and it is perhaps a realization that his life is controlled by the actions of others that causes him to take charge.

Cole is arrested, his friend Rawlins is tortured, his traveling companion Blevins is killed. It is around this time that he realizes that he has to take charge of his own life. When released from jail, Cole travels back to the ranch for Alejandra and the horses. Alejandra's grandaunt refuses to let Cole see Alejandra. Cole tries to make his case (Alejandra's Grandaunt is the first to speak):

"Your case is that certain things happened over which you had no control.

It's true.

I'm sure it is. But it's no case. I've no sympathy with people to whom things happen. It may be that their luck is bad, but is that to count in their favor?

I intend to see her." (240)

This quote is important for two reasons. One, John Grady believes that the events that caused him to lose Alejandra and be arrested were out of his control, a result of fate. Two, for the first time in the book, Cole is in charge. Compare this scene with his earlier courtship of Alejandra. In that scene, Alejandra chases after him while he passively waits. In this scene, Cole is chasing after his own destiny, trying to get Alejandra back without the slightest help from anyone else, including Alejandra. Later, Cole takes the corrupt captain hostage. He tries to find Blevins family and tell them of what happened. He does all of these things without the puppeteering of anyone else. He returns to Texas, very much in charge of his own destiny.

Siddhartha is the polar opposite. In the beginning, Siddhartha tries to be in control of his own fate. His goal in life is to achieve enlightenment or nirvana. To do this, he lives with the Shramanas, but soon becomes dissatisfied. Siddhartha says to his friend Govinda, "We will shall [be 60 years old] Ð'...and never attain nirvana"