LOCK STEP TO FATE

Expecting life to treat you well because you are a good person is like expecting an angry bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian. — Shari R. Barr

Many of the characters could have considered having a trying childhood or a "hard life."

But very few understood their predicament in order to change their future.

The classic example of this was John Locke.

Things he could not control:

1. Abandoned by father
2. Crazy mother giving him up to foster homes
3. Being bounced from foster parent to foster parent.

Things he could control:

1. Doing well in school, especially in math and science.
2. His attitude towards making friends.
3. His temper.
4. How he handled his relationships.
5. Making obtainable goals.

In LOST, Locke was more resigned to his fate than making things better through his own determination. Fate is the development of events beyond a person's control, regarded as determined by a supernatural power. Locke believed that his fate decided his course for him, from his parental abandoment to subsequent serious injury as a cruel twist of fate.

Yet, the only fate common to everyone is the inescapable death of a person. In Locke's case, it could have been many deaths. A little part of him died when he was old enough to realize that his parents did not want him. A little part of him died when he met his crazy mother who must have put the impression that he was "special" in his mind (a mild that may have become self-delusional). A little part of him died when he put unattainable goals in the early stages of his high school years. He wanted to be a popular jock and not a nerdy science kid. He fell into the trap of popularity as being more important than lifetime skills. He desperately wanted to be liked by other people; but he came off cold and distant. The result was that he turned inward, in his own shell. He abandoned what other people told him, and fell into a personal rut of meaningless jobs and spurts of self-discovery which always ended badly.

Locke was lost from an early age. He never got to the point of accepting his lot in life to make an assertive change in direction. If the supernatural situation which he fell into, the plane crash and the island, was a second chance to change his behavioral anchors, Locke failed at the task. Initially, he was assertive but then was spurned. People liked Jack better than him. It was high school all over again. He had important skills that were diminished by Jack's better skills. This is why Locke resigned himself to accept things that would happen to him. He believed in fate, that his life was predetermined to be bad.

And it was. He was bitter. He was naive. He was trusting. He was bad at decision making. His analytical skills led to the mistake with the Hatch lockdown. He could not convince people to his way of thinking. He allowed other people to control him or use him like a pawn. Even in death, he was a puppet called Flocke.

There was once a line that said "don't confuse coincidence with fate."  In Locke's case, he did. Even in the fantasy world after death, for no apparent reason he could not move on with Helen, who was his partner in that world. Why? He destroyed his personal relationship with her off-island by being obsessed with his father's betrayal. In the sideways world, it was the exact opposite. His father was an invalid. He was with Helen. Was that all pure fantasy? He had no bonds to keep Helen in the sideways world church? If not, why did he accept that loneliness when Ben chose to keep working on his relationship issues. Or did it really matter at all? The dream is not reality. It only makes sense if one erases the sideways story lines. Locke's fate was to die alone, over and over again.