Essay on Fate: John F. Kennedy and Prophecy

Submitted By jklax97
Words: 316
Pages: 2

Fate There’s a famous quote by John F. Kennedy that starts off “Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” He explains that things don’t just happen for no reason, everything happens for their own sole purpose. This exact same thought applies greatly to Oedipus Rex. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus tries to avoid his own prophecy even though it’s already bound to happen. Everything that happens on his journey comes out to the same reason of fulfilling the prophecy. Oedipus did everything in his power to avoid the prophecy and none of it worked because it was already meant to happen and he couldn’t avoid it. Oedipus’s mother even gave away her son to get away from the prophecy but that still didn’t even work. At one point in the story Teresias is talking to Oedipus and Oedipus tries to argue “Since come it must, thy duty is to tell me”. Teresias responds by saying “I have no more to say; storm as thou willst, and give the rein to all that pant up in rage.(342-347)” By saying this, he’s explaining that no matter what he says or does, fate will play out the exact way it’s supposed to. At the end of the book Oedipus found out the truth of the prophecy and cries out “Nothing can make me other than I am.(1077)” He meant with this that nothing, no matter what, will change his fate/destiny. This is extremely ironic because the entire story he’s doing as much as he can to avoid the prophecy. Oedipus started off his reign of Thebes as a defier of the gods truth and this held dire