Final Solution and Artist on Fate

If someone were to ask Stephen Dedalus if he beleives in fate, he could say yes just as easily as no. For Stephen, it seems that the choice was always clear --art above all: above religion, above family. To him, "to thine own self be true," means he must acknowledge his apartness for his peers, as well as the surrounding world, and instead of conform or piece together the puzzle of his isolation, he must indulge in it to feed his art. If art is a constant in Stephen's life (as it undeniably is) then fate is also. Both represent entities which have followed the young boy relentlessly throughout the novel and will, presumptuously, follow him beyond the text. In the case of Stephen, the real struggle evident in the text is how to integrate his writing with the ebbs and flows of everyday life. The "fight" is strong because his passion for art is strong. He feels sickened when the world's tug-of-war seems to be winning, when he is drawn towards the clergy. Stephen remains a passionate being; whether it be for religion, a beleif, women, or especially art, he maintains a powerful drive. This drive translates into the conclusion that the inevitability of art in his life. Art, for Stephen, now and always.

In The Final Solution, the presence of fate is slightly more ambiguous. It is left for the reader alone to decide where fate takes grasp. Perhaps it is fate that brings Lyle to the old man, but perhaps it is only fate when the African Gray finds his way, once again, to the boy. Either way, fate plays some role. How else would the old man have known to search a certain apartment at random and exit successfuly. The old man --who takes no name in the novel aside from "old man," must feel at the heels of fate when he decides on a whim to take a case after decades of being retired. He takes a chance with fate, and is rewarded for it.