To what extent are we the product of our choices?
What is choice? Choice is an act of choosing between two or more possibilities without thinking about the consequences that follow. “Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.” To me this quote means that whatever choice we make consequences will always follow the choice you make. Many texts show the concept that influence personal choice that includes The Choosing a poem composed by Liz Lochhead, The Road Not Taken a poem written by Robert Frost and Groundhog Day a film by Harold Ramis.
In the film Groundhog Day the use of montages shows us that, the choices we make determine what we are. Throughout the film, montages show the choices Phil makes and it determines what he is. An example of this is the montage that showed the repeated failed attempts of trying to woo Rita. Phil later realises that he was a selfish person and chooses to improve himself to get Rita’s love. This shows that he made a variety of choices to get her, and it results in a failure. This also emphasises the idea that personal change takes time and mistakes are made until you get it right. Another example of montage throughout the film is the many ways and attempts of suicide. At one point in the film Phil tried to kill himself to escape Groundhog Day, there was a montage that showed different types of suicide but he ended up waking up to Groundhog Day again. This expresses that Phil was tired of making choices for himself and wanted to see what would happen if he changed other people’s lives; this is when he starts to change. The use of montages shows the choices Phil makes throughout the film and it actually elaborates that we are completely the product of the things we do.
The Character development was an important factor in the film as it shows you how a self-centered weatherman becomes a unselfish man. Throughout the movie, we see Phil going through many phases including self-gain, depression, insanity, loneliness, anger and most importantly love. During the film, we are thought to believe that Phil has always had a negative attitude towards life and has always been selfish to others. We are also thought to believe that his only purpose in life was to serve himself causing the same day to repeat. The character development conclusively demonstrates that we are the product of the things we do.
A related text that relates to personal choices is The Choosing by Liz Lochhead. One of the techniques used in this text is repetition. The composer says, “I remember “several times throughout the poem. The first use of “I remember” in paragraph two, “the competition for top desk or to read aloud” talks about how the protagonist remembers how Mary and she used to do the same things which resulted in competition between the two. Then in paragraph three the composer writes “The same house, different homes, where the choices were made” this talks about how their equality changed from that point on, this is because of Mary's dad didn’t believe in high-school education for girls. "The same house" represents them living in the same type of house and "Different homes" can mean that their home lives were different and this was where the choices were made