Looking to the Past

In Slaughter House Five, written by Kurt Vonnegut, the presence of a sense of future, present, and past is continuously mentioned. As mentioned in the first chapter, after talking about how it was that Lot's wife turns around to look at the burning city even when she is warned not to do so and is turned into stone, the conclusion reached by the main character is that People aren't supposed to look back. Looking back upon actions and thoughts we have had in the past may give us insights to the future to make better choices and to aid the way in which we interact in our community. Looking back, even with all the positives it has, may sometimes end up giving you "advice" which can take you in wrong directions. Sometimes its better to keep some feelings and events in your life locked up as to not interfere with any ongoing events. Tragic moments, indescribable, excruciating feelings, and moments of complete nonsense according to your present day way of looking at things are among those thing you wish not to look upon. Not only will you feel embarrassed of your past actions, but they may limit you to things you want to do because you feel you are either unworthy of doing so or incapable of carrying them along. In other words, they may form a trauma that sets restriction upon the way you could carry out things. A very clear example is the case of characters such as Alex in Clockwork Orange or Robert, played by Will Smith, in I am Legend. Alex goes through a painful treatment which causes him a trauma under certain conditions, where if he were to experience any sort of violence, he would act differently then how he would otherwise. Robert also experiences a life changing trauma, where there is an area within the city that had a painful event where he doesn't dare enter, even with it being safe from infected human beings. These two look upon their past and take decisions influenced on a trauma that took place which relates with the action they are about to perform. Sometimes, if the trauma was not present in these situations, the outcome of the decisions and final consequences they would have could give them positive results. If we were to be able to control which aspects of our life we were to remember and to take action upon, we would give a mold to our future, as it was with the clear example of the choice of looking back upon what is happening in the city by Lot's wife, giving her as a result something she wasn't looking forward to.