Comparing Fate In 'Outliers And Fire On The Hills'

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Fate: Fact or Fiction? Numerous choices face our minds and lives every single day. In every choice, we have to make a decision, whether it is good or bad, big or small. Regardless of the nature and impact of the choice, a vital question remains about these decisions: Are we in control of our fates? Two writers, Malcolm Gladwell and Robinson Jeffers, propose antithetical answers to this essential question in “Outliers” and “Fire on the Hills.” In Gladwell’s nonfiction work regarding the impact of practice in music, Gladwell uses research and comparison to suggest that time and preparation will ultimately decide one’s success in a certain activity. Conversely, using paradox and imagery, Jeffers’ poem about a burning forest and its inhabitants …show more content…

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker “thought about the smaller lives that were caught” in the forest fire (Jeffers 3). These “smaller” animals literally refers to the squirrels, raccoons, and other animals of shorter size. But “smaller” also connotes the importance and value of the lives of these animals. Born in their insignificant form, the less fortunate inhabitants of the forest are not able to escape their fiery demises quick enough, supporting the idea of an uncontrollable fate in nature. From the moment one is born, life either traps or blesses that person or animal. A talent or comforting lifestyle could grace one’s life, or a terrible disease or circumstance could befall another. Soon after mentioning the small lives, the speaker notes that “beauty is not always lovely” (Jeffers 4). In this paradox, Jeffers delves into the death of the “smaller lives.” Death is the end to life, yet it can also symbolize change and new beginnings. Although a fire devastates a forest and extinguishes the lives of many creatures, the beauty of new life and renewal will bloom in the aftermath. In short, nature will move towards the idea of a fundamental balance between life and death, using the destinies of the inhabitants as the driving force. Every animal has a basic role to play from birth to death that will drive the course nature will take. Additionally, Jeffers backs up this perplexing claim by detailing the return of an eagle to its nest: “Insolent and gorged, cloaked in the folded storms of his shoulders / He had come from far off for the good hunting” (Jeffers 8-9). Jeffers illustrates a yet another paradoxical situation, where death of others can lead to the life of another, to support his argument of fixed fate. Gaining nourishment from the “good hunting” of the fleeing animals, the eagle’s destiny is to kill and to become

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