Free Will And Destiny In Bina Barua’s Along The High Road

Abstract

This write-up reads free will and destiny in Bina Barua’s classic novel titled Along the High Road (1944). Free will implies
a person’s individual freedom in taking decisions in his/her life. Destiny refers to a kind of power which is beyond the
individual’s control and supposedly controls a person’s deeds. Therefore, both Free will and destiny work as two opposing
forces in how the future of a person pans out. While sometimes it seems that everything in this world is predestined, often
people have a hand in their own destinies. Barua’s Along the High Road is a realistic portrayal of the conflict between
these two forces. For Barua, destiny has a bigger role to play in the fate of individuals. My paper is a sincere endeavour
to trace how these two forces are represented in Barua's novel.