Predestination in "The Shot" and "The Fatalist"

Paper Summary:

Alexander Pushkin's "The Shot" and Mikhail Lermontov's "The Fatalist" are two stories of fate and the possibility of life being planned out for us before it happens. The paper shows that both of these stories try to convey that even if at first it seems that a person is able to escape his immediate future, sooner or later, destiny will catch up and they will be proven wrong. The paper shows that while "The Shot" explains this point in a metaphorical way, "The Fatalist" shows that predestination exists by a physical example of death. The paper compares the two books and draws conclusions in terms of similarities and differences.

From the Paper:

"But just like in "The Shot", Vulich is proven wrong, because later that same night, he is killed by a drunk in the street. Vulich, after many times of avoiding his fate, was shown that he can try to hide from it as much as he can, but in the end, it will catch up with him. Pechorin says that Vulich's last word were "he was right," referring to Pechorin's prediction of saying that Vulich will die today (Lermontov, 182). At the end of his life, Vulich finally admitted to himself that he is unable to avoid the future that is planned out for him. This time, predestination and its existence was proven by actual death."

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