Karma

Both TFA and CDF share similarities in portraying individuals who go against instinct and in doing so suffer a bad fate. A sense of predestination also seems to play a big role in both works. Both cultures believe that a sense of duty acts through members of their society. Members get 'chosen' to carry out specific tasks. For instance, Clotilde Armenta says, "It's to spare those poor boys from the horrible duty that's fallen on them" which the narrator says occurs "Because she'd sensed it. She was certain that the Vicario brothers were not as eager to carry out the sentence as to find someone who would do them the favor of stopping them" (57). This suggests that is it not their fault if they were willed to carry out a duty. It is ironic because often they go about getting vengeance in a violent way and this makes them no different than the perpetrator. This leads to a proactive approach where they believe it is there duty to seek justice in this way instead of letting that individual receive their own destiny separate from their vengeful behavior (Michael Kohlhaas!).

At times it seems like the gods or fate's choice is sometimes against their own interest (even though at the time they think they are doing the right thing)and this puts the spirit world at odds with the human world. Does this suggest that the gods are misleading them?In both texts individuals are warned about a potential death (that eventually occurs) and given a warning to interfere and stop, or at least to play no part. In both texts there is a lot of foreshadowing for what is to come. For instance, Ezeudu says, "A cold shiver ran down Okonkwo's back as he remembered the last time the old man had visited him. That boy calls you father," he had said. "Bear no hand in his death"(121). But the narrator in CDF says, "A death for which we all could have been to blame." This is very interesting because the narrator chooses to place blame on themselves for their actions instead of blaming the sole perpetrator. In TFA we have the exact opposite response. Okonkwo is blamed for the deaths that he cause and the culture and community are not held directly responsible. In both cases though there is little or no remorse for killing other people based on their own nonviolent behavior.

Another interesting comparison between these two texts is that they both share similiarites in basing judgements on an individual's reputation. In CDF it says "Their reputation as good people was so well founded that no one paid any attention to them (52)." Reputation plays a big role in both texts. But reputation seems to undermine both the fate of Santiago and the success of Okonkwo. Since everyone thought the twins had a good reputation they didn't believe they would do something bad, so they overlooked that he was going to be murdered. In Okonkwo's case, he spent his whole life trying to clear a new trail away from his father's footsteps and he ended up like his father in a way- by meeting despair by being kicked out of his community.