Free will and fate are often regarded in terms of a balance, in that there is some of life that is controllable by using choice, represented as our free will, while there is still another portion where there is little to no control, something we call fate. This observation of a balance between free will and fate is especially seen in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. In Moby Dick, Ishmael, our protagonist, finds himself in the company of Queequeg, the chief harpooner aboard the Pequod. While together, Ishmael and Queequeg weave a mat, with Ishmael passing the shuttle through the threads on the loom while Queequeg strikes the woof with his sword, to tamp down the threads. During their weaving, Ishmael makes an observation in that their current activity was like how fate, free will, and chance worked, thinking, “it seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the fates”.
Free will and fate are often regarded in terms of a balance, in that there is some of life that is controllable by using choice, represented as our free will, while there is still another portion where there is little to no control, something we call fate. This observation of a balance between free will and fate is especially seen in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. In Moby Dick, Ishmael, our protagonist, finds himself in the company of Queequeg, the chief harpooner aboard the Pequod. While together, Ishmael and Queequeg weave a mat, with Ishmael passing the shuttle through the threads on the loom while Queequeg strikes the woof with his sword, to tamp down the threads. During their weaving, Ishmael makes an observation in that their current activity was like how fate, free will, and chance worked, thinking, “it seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the fates”.