How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Jonah—John—if I had been a Sam, I would have been a Jonah still—not because I have been unlucky for others, but because somebody or something has compelled me to be certain places at certain times, without fail. (1.2)
In the Bible, Jonah was fated to preach in Nineveh. When he didn't go, God made some fated course corrections to get him there. John's basically saying that the same divine roadmap was given to him.
Quote #2
As it happened—"as it was meant to happen," Bokonon would say—[…]. (10.3)
Of course, we've already been told that Bokonon's entire religion is based on foma or untruths. So, we really have to question John's reliability as an author on this one.
Quote #3
Hazel's obsession with Hoosiers around the world was a textbook example of a false karass, of a seeming team that was meaningless in terms of the ways God gets things done, a textbook example of what Bokonon calls a granfalloon. (42.42)
Facebook networks and groups are basically a textbook example of granfalloons.
Quote #4
"People are hated a lot of places. Claire pointed out in her letter that Americans, in being hated, were simply paying the normal penalty for being people, and that they were foolish to think they should somehow be exempted from that penalty" (45.5)
This one's an interesting take on fate and free will. Biologically, we're all fated to act like human beings on account of we're human beings. But here, the novel suggests that some people feel exempt from such fate based on social status. In this case, it's being an American—although income, education, and employment are other examples that would just as easily fit.
Quote #5
I let the book fall open where it would. As it happened, it fell open to the chapter about the island's outlawed holy man, Bokonon. (46.12)
Yet again, John sees something where there might be nothing. Yet again, again, we might be seeing nothing where there is, in fact, something. Yet again, again, again….
Quote #6
By that time Johnson had developed a conviction that something was trying to get him somewhere for some reason. (49.10)
Johnson's own story of travel and woe seems an awfully lot like the Biblical story of Jonah. Hmm, makes you wonder how the idea of Jonah got into the narrator's head all the way back in Chapter 1, huh?
Quote #7
Nestor Aamons was captured by the Russians, then liberated by the Germans during the Second World War. He was not returned home by his liberators, […]. (54.5)
Aamons' story is very similar to Johnson's, with the key difference that Aamons never feels that "something was trying to get him somewhere for some reason."
Quote #8
"Bokonon suggested the hook, too, as the proper punishment for Bokononists," he said. "It was something he'd seen in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud's" (78.8)
Fate and Free Will links up with our "Art and Culture" theme. Here, the idea of "life imitating art" seems to almost have a fate-like quality to it. Is life fated to imitate art or is it our free will that chooses art as the source of imitation? Jeez, these questions spin our heads right round, like a record, baby, right round.
Quote #9
"Why should she say yes?"
"It's predicted in The Book of Bokonon that she'll marry the next President of San Lorenzo," said Frank. (90.23-24)
Of course, as a devout Bokononist, Mona would do what The Book of Bokonon tells her to. This means her own freewill is ultimately what fates her to marry John. Yeah, sure ... that works.
Quote #10
"Well, maybe you can find some neat way to die, too," said Newt. (126.7)
The ultimate battle between fate and free will in the novel. We're all fated to die, but maybe, just maybe, our free will can determine our death on our own terms. If we're lucky, that is. Wait, that's the lucky option?