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This picture is a great depiction of the philosophical view. Our world is a path, which path we take is up to us and any consequences that come along with our choice is our own fault.
The 1951 Disney film Alice In Wonderland is a great way to demonstrate this as well. Bellow is a clip from the film, showing Alice's confusion.
Alice chooses the path that leads her to the March Hare. She ends up getting very frustrated with them and regrets visting them in the first place. Alice can only really blame herself for this decision and no one else.
A song that can also help explain would be Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten. The lyrics go,
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten
These few lyrics show us that no one else can take the blame. You make your own path and regardless if the path leads you to happiness or disaster, you still made it happen youself. No one else can take the blame for that. Your life is your doing.
Existentialism also plays an important role in the history of dramatic theatre. At the turn of the 20th century, playwright’s world wide began to focus their stories on real life situations. This was very different considering Shakespearian plays had previously ruled the stage. This phase of realism gave their audiences a chance to relate to the characters and stories. And as existentialism had become more popular, a new form of realism had been born: Theatre of the Absurd. Although existentialism inspired this type of theatre, it is however considered to be an extreme form of it. This genre illustrated the helplessness of humans and discussed how human are strangers in a meaningless universe by using meaningless dialogue. Absurdists are set out to prove that life is without meaning or purpose and that we humans cannot truly communicate in this world. When we say “meaningless dialogue” we really mean “meaningless jabber” . To fully understand the randomness of their dialogue, we must present you with a clip from one up most quintessential Theatre of the absurd play. It is titled “Waiting for Godot” written by Samuel Beckett. In this story, you witness a few characters; wait for someone named Godot while they discuss their lives.
Weird? Yes. If there is anything that you need to understand from this clip, its that Theatre of the Absurd derived from existentialism. Although it is an extreme from of it, one thing they both have in common is that they both believe that we humans life in a Godless world.
This is just a funny clip of how existentialist look at life. (just a commercial)
Aside from Theatre of the Absurd, Existential stories still well, exist. Two modern Day examples of an existential play, would be the films “I Heart Huckabees”
I heart Huckabees
In This film, the characters find themselves solving existential issues. For example, in the first few scenes of the movie, a man uses the example of a blanket, to demonstrate an existential theme. He holds up a blanket and says imagine that it is the entire universe. Each part of the blanket is a different person, place, or thing; whether it is a hammer, or Paris
