Destiny

Destiny

Every hero must leave on a journey to find their path. It is a motif of all literature. Both Siddhartha and John Grady Cole were at a stand still in their lives when the book starts. Siddhartha in Siddhartha by Herman Hesse has mastered his current life and it still has not brought him happiness. John Grady Cole in All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy has lost the ranch he intended to run and has no reason to stay in Texas. Both characters decide to set out on a journey and find their destiny. The way each character views destiny is key to how each character approaches life. Cole exhibits a passive attitude toward life in the beginning of the book and an active attitude toward life by the end. From this, it can be deduced that Cole is waiting for his destiny to unfold before him in the beginning, and attempting to control his destiny by the end. On the other hand, Siddhartha displays a very active approach toward life. Only toward the end does Siddhartha learn to stop searching and let life take him on his journey. In other words, in the beginning, Siddhartha is controlling his destiny while in the end he lets go. As the books unfold, both protagonists change their view on destiny, maturing in opposite directions. This opposite maturation can be used to demonstrate the difference between Western and Eastern philosophy.

Cole starts without a path. On page 230, he says he believes in fate. However, in the beginning of the book he passively waits for his fate to come to him. He does not know what he wants to do in life. He believed his destiny was to own the family ranch. Now, this is not an option. Cole, with his friend Rawlins, decides to travel on a journey to Mexico.