1492.

"1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them."

How Vonnegut-esque is this quote! This quote clearly demonstrates the dark and dry humor of his passages. He raises a point regarding the importance of of the year 1492, saying that it should be remembered as the day North America was used productively to further the dreams and aspirations of generations, when in fact, it had been serving that purpose for generations before 1492. It is very much like Vonnegut to express the contrary view against the popular opinion. He does this by going against the popular, well founded opinion that his ancestors were the ones who had made America into a land of freedom and dreams, when in fact, they were basically pirates and bandits who had robbed the natives of their full and imaginative lives. A brief glance at this quote will lead the reader to be filled with shock, but further reading validates the meaning of Vonnegut's words.

Fate or Free Will?

Everytime when I hear others blame their success or failure on fate and destiny, I cringe a little bit on the inside.To me, the blaming of certain event on the strings of fate is a surefire sign of  incompetence. It is really easy to come up with an excuse such as: "Oh I was just not meant to do it" or "It's not my fault that I failed, its just that god never created me to succeed." It is always far easier to dodge blame with an excuse rather than to face it for what it is. Fortunately for those too incompetent to deal with their problems, fate is always there to be blamed on. In my opinion, the work you do and the actions you make define yourself. For example, if you dont take the time to study and prepare for a test, you are bound to do poorly. There is no accurate reference to fate in this situation and other like this. You cannot say: "Fate never meant for me to do well on this test." unless if you are amongst the incompetent masses of the world. So the next time you decide to blame an incident on bad luck or fate, reflect upon yourself: did you actually put the work and effort into succeeding, or did you just do nothing and decide to take a leap of faith?