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<title> What is life all about? </title>
The people create society and society establish the people who live their lives out there. Somehow, we all tend to have different opinions about what life is all about and how we are supposed to live and these opinions make the world a living place. In John Fowles' The Collector the themes are dealing with the meaning of life and what makes it worth living. There are also distinctions about life it self and life inside every human being. Reading Miranda's diary dated November 7th gives many interesting aspects and point of views about love, hate and questions of vital importance.

We are all different and that is what makes our existence more interesting. Miranda cannot understand Caliban's behaviour and the reasons why he is so desperate to have her. She does not comprehend how he can love her when he does not know her and all she fells towards him is hate and anger. "You get on the back of everything vital, everything trying to be honest and free, and you bear it down" (p.217). Miranda gives this description to Caliban and accuses him for taking away her freedom, which for her, is the same as taking away her life. For Caliban life is about the actions he performs, the excitement makes him alive. He does not care if she hates him as long as he can watch her and control her whenever he likes. Just as Caliban, the school "Ladymont", as Miranda used to go to also took away her freedom because everybody was supposed to do the same things even if they had different interests and needs. "Why should every vital and creative and good person be martyred by a great universal stodge around?" (p.217). Freedom is very important to her but it does not mean that you are free to do whatever you like, for example to kidnap someone for selfish reasons. It is about freedom to live and develop as a human being.

A very interesting question that appears after reading this book is: When are people alive? Caliban and Miranda represent different kinds of living creatures. He is alive because of his actions which affect the environment around him but his heart and soul does not take part in his development. For Miranda, her heart and soul are very important and she wants to live a life where she can believe in her believes and reach self-realization. Art, literature and her family and friends all seem to influence her, she lives because of her development. "I love honesty and freedom and giving. I love making, I love doing, I love being to the full, I love everything which is not sitting and watching and copying and dead at heart" (p.218). This thought explains why she feels dead down in the cellar; she cannot broaden her mind down there. It does not matter if your heart is beating, you might not be alive anyway. If you are a person without feelings, heart, love or understanding; you are a person without life.

Finally, I will account for a more concrete issue, also a theme, which appears in this passage from November 7th. Miranda lets her thoughts go back to a discussion she once had with George Paston, a man she loves, about different classes of society. They talked about the New People, people who live in the material world and have money as their best friend. This world really makes her upset because it grows very quickly and destroys society. George Paston told her that this kind of people are poor because they do not have any souls. This inspired her and resulted in her opinion that money does not make you rich - it is personality and moral that make a person valuable.

The themes this book are dealing with are very interesting and important. We are all people, living in the same world but at different levels. What makes people so different is hard to say but as shown in this essay it is about the reason why we live and in which way our days are passing by. It can be an illusion, like in Calibans case where he is addicted to a young lady he has seen walking around in the neighbourhood and the way she acts makes him think of her as the complete woman. On the other hand it can be the intellectual development which concerns Miranda. Life is also about what makes us love and hate. Caliban and Miranda have totally different opinions of love, he thinks love is what makes him feel satisfied while she believes that love should be mutual between persons. She also reflects to, that money cannot buy love and it will not make you happy even if some people might think so. If we were all the same there would be nothing to live for, we would not be able to influence and inspire each other. The best thing is that every human being is responsible and in charge of his or her actions and are allowed to do what they want with their lives. But, this rules only concern your own life and of course you are not allowed to do what you want with others.
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