Thursday, November 1, 2007

Big Question Evolution

I had trouble creating a big question so my question stems for my psychology class of nature and nurture. Does our environment shape and influence who we are or are we born with inherent flaws in character?In Oedipus Rex, the answer seems rather in ambiguous. In fact one can cite both Oedipus’s inherited characteristics as well as an environment that influences the protagonist choices. Although Oedipus is raised in an environment that he is completely oblivious to and thus because of his own ignorance tries to escape his fate of killing his parents. Because he does not realize that in doing so and escaping fate he is enabling such a prophecy only supports the fact that our environment influences us. However one could look at this same set of facts in a different light. Although it is his fault for fleeing his own fate, one must realize that his legitimate family also tried to undo the oracles prophecies. In effect one sees that his own inherited flaws from his family leads him to follow in their footsteps and also avoid the truth.