The Problem of Choice
There is a moment in every person’s life when he appears before a pivotal choice – to risk and prove his belief or to obey but keep his life. And this dilemma is one of the most complicated. What is more important – to have a personal opinion and be ready to pay a high price for it or to betray all in what you believe to stay safe and sound? Anderton is in such a situation: if he does not kill Kaplan, the work of his life will be destroyed and the whole Precrime system will be regarded as failure. And he murders his foe, the brave choice from the first sight, but his aim wasn’t noble – he did it just to keep his job. There is nothing to be proud about but we can’t judge him. Sometimes there happen a catch 22 situations when there is no right choice and consequences are unavoidable. And it doesn’t matter which way you choose, the point is that you are responsible for the choice you made and you have no right to accuse someone else in your problems.
Fate
Can people change their fate or they are not able to change something that was predicted? Anderton shows that we can. Even though he knew that the precognition was false and he didn’t have an intention to kill Kaplan, he does so to prove that his system works. And Kaplan, in his turn, being sure that he has won and the Precog system will be destroyed, didn’t expect that Anderton will do that. The fact that there are three mutants – precogs who make predictions shows that there are always different versions of the same event in the future and we can act whatever we want, everything depends on us and the responsibility is always on us, not on a fate.
Private Freedom
The narrative describes a society in which people can be imprisoned because of the intention to commit a crime. Their fortune is in hands of three mutants, called precogs, who have a gift to predict the future. It seems strange for us, because modern people appreciate their freedom and especially the freedom to think whatever they want, and it is absolutely incomprehensible how people in the story don’t struggle against this cruel policy – a person can’t be judged because of an intention, it is ridiculous. The private freedom means nothing for that people, they are scared and can’t rule their own lives. The author shows us what the society might look if we won’t respect and appreciate our privacy. But still there remains the dilemma whether the private freedom is more important that public security and it is up to each person to decide.
