Can a Person Control Their Fate?

People are fascinated with the unknown. Fate is one of the aspects of life that is a mystery to human kind. People have different views on fate. Some people may think that their fate is set in stone, while others believe that life is filled with chaos and whatever happens, happens. While people have their own opinion on fate, nobody positively knows how fate works. The real question that many humans are itching to find the answer to is “Can a person control their fate?”

The story of Oedipus is focused around fate. Oedipus proves that a person cannot control their own fate.  Oedipus goes to an oracle and finds out that his future will consist of killing his father and marrying his mother. Oedipus has good intentions and tries to escape his fate but the oracle came true anyway. In order to avoid this prophecy, Oedipus leaves Corinth and travels to Thebes. On the way to Thebes, Oedipus kills a man who made conflict with him on the path. That man he killed was his father; however he did not know it at the time. After he gets to Thebes, Oedipus answers a seemingly unsolvable riddle and becomes a hero and a king in reward. Oedipus married his own mother, fulfilling the prophecy. He, like not knowing it was his father who he killed, did not know that it was his mother he married either. Oedipus left his hometown and his family to avoid his fate, but the oracle came true anyway.

Oedipus, however, was never told that the parents who raised his were not his real parents, putting Oedipus at a disadvantage. If Oedipus would have known that the parents he grew up with were his adoptive parents, could Oedipus have been able to avoid his fate? Possibly. Since Oedipus had no idea that he was adopted in the first place, he assumed that those parents were the parents he was going to kill and marry. Oedipus did not know that the man he killed was his biological father and the woman he married was his biological mother. His adoptive parents almost controlled his fate by not telling him the truth. I think that if Oedipus would’ve known beforehand that he was adopted, he wouldn’t have left Corinth in the first place, so he couldn’t have done any action to make the oracle come true. Oedipus could have also avoided his fate though by deciding not to marry anyone and refraining from killing anyone as well.

I believe that there are things a person can do to control their fate. Like in Oedipus, he had a decision to leave. If he wouldn’t have left, his life could’ve been completely different. That happens in everyone’s life. Every decision a person makes will affect their lives in some way, maybe not in a drastic way like the decisions Oedipus made, but it will in some way. Currently as a high school senior, I am facing the decision with what to do with the rest of my life. I plan on going on to college to expand on my education. My life can change depending on which college I choose to go to. Depending on which college I choose, my life could be completely different compared to if I chose to go to a different one. I believe that people influence their fate by making their own decisions.

            Nobody knows for sure and everyone can think what they want about fate, but I believe that every decision a person makes affects their future and their fate. I therefore think that people do have a say in their fate and can slightly control it with the decisions they make.