Month: December 2015

Recently we have read a book called Parzival. It is about a boy who went on a journey to become a knight. We were discussing how he achieved this. Was it  free will and/or fate. We were given the opportunity to chose one of these and write which one we thought was correct. I found this a struggle because I had never writen an essay before so I was a bit worried. I chose free will and this is my argument;

If you let your life be taken over by fate where would you be? Without free will we would be in places we don’t want to be in. In the book Parzival, a book by Katherine Paterson, a boy named Parzival takes a journey to be a knight, in the end he does not only succeed in this, but he also becomes a man of high power. In his journey he uses all of his skills by his own free will; he had to be selfless, courageous and to think well on his feet. 

Parzival became king because of his selflessness. On Pg38 a huge feast is offered to him but he refuses for the sake of the people, “The people loved Parzival for this, the queen most of all, for it broke her heart to see her people suffer”. He chose to do this even when he was hungry after his journey. This was a heroic choice because the people needed food more than him. He is selfless but this is not the only thing he exceeds at.

 

Parzival became king because he is unbelievably brave. On Pg112 ,” He saw the strangely appareled knight.”  a knight charges at him without warning with the element of surprize but he does not give up. He chose to do this even though he could have run away. This is exceedingly courageous because he was facing a very tough opponent. But determination is not the end of his talents.

 

Parzival became royalty because of his great decisions. He went to the king for a second time even though he didn’t have to, Pg 119, “With Joy, Parzival asked his brother Feirefiz to go with him.” and “ There was no joy at Wild Mountain.” He elected this hard decision even when it was not mandatory. This is a tough decision because if he didn’t, the curse would have killed the king. That is why Parzival is great at decision making.

The choices he chose by his own choices affected not just himself, but everyone around him with great selflessness. Without the strengths that he possesses he would have never have risen to the royalty that he eventually achieved. Those kinds of choices affect people, for instance world leaders like Mahatma Gandhi made choices that changed people for the greater good. And this is why free will matters and how it affects the world for the better…