Last Friday, I saw the movie Arrival. It was an interesting movie. In the end, we find out that the main character, Louise, can see the future. She sees that she’ll marry her colleague, Ian, and that they’ll have a daughter. Unfortunately, her daughter will get a disease and will pass away and Ian will leave them. Even though she knows this, she still chooses to be with Ian. I understand why she does this, but I don’t think that I would be strong enough to do the same thing. I can imagine that losing a child and a husband would be a terrible thing, and I just wouldn’t want to go through that. In a way, her choice is also selfish. She doesn’t tell her husband about this until it’s too late, and so, in a way, she makes the choice for him. He might not have made the same choice that she did, but he did not get that option. But this is an impossible situation. Since she can see the future, she saw how happy her family was while they were still together, and she might have felt that that happiness was worth the eventual sadness. Since Ian can’t see the future, he can’t see the happiness, and therefore even if she had told Ian about what was going to happen, he never would’ve been able to understand the entire situation. Louise was very strong to make the choice that she did, but I don’t think that I would’ve done the same thing.
Rose Scholars Spring 2018
Endless possibilities
These types of movies always make me think too. I am with you, I don’t think I’d be able to make that decision, knowing what I know. But if I didn’t would fate have made my choice for me anyway?
Thanks so much for the post! This got me thinking about the nature of choice – it does really seem like Louise made the choice for Ian. But that makes our concept of having choices hairy, no? If someone withholding information from me influences my choice, it’s interesting that we no longer would want to ascribe that choice to myself. Particularly because I inevitably cannot have all the information when I make any choice.