Destiny in the Literature of Walker Percy, Leo Tolstoy and Eudora Welty

Abstract

The word, destiny, engages the focal point of action regarding human endeavor. It comes from the Latin word, destinare, which means making firm or determining. The general interpretation of destiny has to do with naming the end toward which we move, toward which we aspire, and toward which we enlist our physical, our mental and our spiritual energies. In Medieval Literature, the interpretation of destiny is associated with fate, wherein some force outside of the individual was so intense that the individual was powerless and bewildered in the face of a destiny that struck fear into the person, for that fateful destiny was absolute. One could not escape destiny. Something would happen. Around the corner destiny lurked, and the event actually would occur. It was that person’s destiny.

This examination explores Human Destiny in Literature as the journey. In our humanity we are all destined for the journey; the beginning, the middle and the end of our human life. Our destiny is to live without closure, without the final reward of our purpose, our destiny. Literature engages journey, and all of humanity participates in the journey, the story of our beginnings, the story of our passages, and the story of our desires and continual struggles that move toward an end. The journey is our destiny. It may be a chosen destiny, or it may be thrust upon us. Our destiny also defines us, gives us our identity and individuals. And our destiny also necessarily encompasses multiple possibilities for the human journey.