08 October 2007 @ 11:39 am
Many Things  
First...

Everyday we are faced with choices. Small decisions, like what to wear or what to eat or whether or not we are going to walk slowly or quickly. Big decisions, such as where we will go to school, work, or live. We understand the weight of such large choices: where we attend school affects the relationships we have with our family and friends, where we work affects who and how we interact with daily, where we live affects all of those things and more--but what about the small ones? Does what we choose to wear or eat before we leave the safety of our homes each day affect those around us? How can it? Run Lola Run delves into the fine intricacies of choice and chance.

There are things that lie outside of reign of power. Whether or not we will trip and fall on the steps, the choices of others and their reactions to the events in their lives--all these things are out of our control. How we choose to react to these things, whether the decisions are large or small, can change the lives of those around us. Of course, it is hard to see how falling down the stairs can change the lives of the people we encounter afterwards, only by stepping back, and reliving the scenario from different views. Usually, we are not afforded the comfort of this option, and all of our choices are hit or miss. Lola, however, lives in a very unusual world. Though it mirrors ours quiet effectively, in Lola's continuity, she is able to relive the same twenty minutes of her life several times, taking a slightly different path each time.

In the first reality, she races down the steps of her home with not trouble and makes it to her father quite quickly, and as a result, learns she is not really her father’s daughter. He refuses to help her and throws her out of the bank after insulting both her and her mother. And though she doesn’t have the money, she races anyways to Manni, who she helps rob the store. They leave it running, smiling and thinking that their problems are over, only to discover that the police are outside on the street waiting for them. They surrender, but in the confusion caused by Manni tossing the bag of money into the air, Lola is shot and dies in the streets in his arms. In this reality, Lola bumps into the lady on the corner pushing her child in a baby carriage and subsequently, the lady loses her child to protective services and ends up stealing the child of another in order to be a mother. The young man who offers her his bike ends up getting beaten up by thugs. The homeless man keeps the bag of money and presumably gets good use out of its contents.
It seems straight forward. Lola ran as quickly as she could. She failed to get the money in time; Manni robbed the supermarket as he said he would. Nothing can be changed, right? It couldn’t have ended any differently.
Skip to the next scenario. This time, Lola is tripped on the stairs by a boy. A seemingly small difference, but things drastically change. The lady on the corner wins the lottery and becomes very wealthy. The young man continues on without trouble. The homeless man still keeps the money. In addition, the ambulance crashes into a glass pane and her father learns his mistress’ child is not his. Lola robs the bank and Manni gets run over by the ambulance and dies.

Once again, it seems as if there were few to no choices made. Lola did all she could. But small things were altered: the fact that she tripped, thus changing the time with which she collided with the woman on the corner, her response to the boy on the bicycle, her reaction to her father. These are small things. They affect nothing. Or so we are lead to believe. The combination of these small things leads to a very different ending. This time Lola lives and it is Manni who lies dying on the pavement.

The circumstances change. Lola leaps over the last few steps. The lady becomes a Jehovah’s Witness. The young man gives his bicycle to the homeless man. Lola misses her father at the bank and ends up winning the money at a casino. The homeless man is caught by Manni, who delivers the money without a hitch. Lola and Manni have a “happily ever after” ending with an extra 100,000 marks to their names.

What changed from the second to the third scenario? What was different from the first to the third? Small things, negligible things, things most of us would consider insignificant. The events on the stairs affected her timing throughout, thus changing when and how she reacted with each person in her path. Each time the acts that occurred rippled out from where they originated, changing slight details, enacting a larger change over the course of the story.

During the course of our lives we are bombarded with decisions everyday. What to wear, what to eat, what to do, the list goes on and on. We are often told growing up that our choices can affect big change in the world around us. We often assume that it’s meant that our big decisions will alter the course of history. But what of the small ones?

Going down the stairs, it seems a simple thing, negligible and nonintrusive in your life. But it could very well be a life changing event that precipitates the direction that your life, and that of those around you, takes. The choices one makes weigh heavily on the fabric of a life, each decision altering the threads that make up the tapestry.

It's a bit rough....but whatev. I'm still looking for my Freaks essay....can't find it :\


Sometimes....I wish I were a boy.... :(


Yay Oni-Con!!!! *dances*


I need to write my paper for film class on Pan's Labyrinth....BUT I HAVEN'T FINISHED WATCHING IT YET!!! I need to write it by 2:25.... TT__TT Damn my procrastinating skills! They be too good!

Meh...I am hungry.

Some guy came to my English class to talk about the newspaper. He needs some public speaking classes or something....he was really fidgety and awkward-making. I felt bad for him. He had some great stuff to say, absolutely amazing speech, but he was so awkward in his deliverance that I don't think he captured the attention of many people. :(


BLAH paper in English on Wednesday. Too many papers on stuff I don't want to write about....why can't we write about interesting things?

ALSO I have a surprise in the works... :D
 
 
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