Throughout the novel, fate plays a powerful role in the events that occur. Stanley and his family are cursed with bad luck because of how his great-great-grandfather slighted Madame Zeroni in the past. However, Stanley’s actions and desire to achieve his goals show that free will, or individual agency, can change outcomes that seem preordained. Often in the novel, events that seem fated may be coincidence, chance, or the result of a character’s intentional actions.

The first foreshadowing of this comes when Clyde Livingston’s sneakers fall from the sky and hit Stanley in the head, “seemingly out of nowhere, like a gift from God” (24), which leads Stanley to begin the process of ending the curse on his family. The shoes feel like fate to Stanley, and they eventually lead to him going to Camp Green Lake and meeting Hector Zeroni (also known as Zero), who is a descendant of Madame Zeroni. Later on in the novel, Zero reveals that he was the one who stole Clyde Livingston’s shoes from the shelter and that he was so scared of getting caught that he put them on top of a car. Zero being the cause of Stanley’s arrest is significant because that is what ultimately brings Zero and Stanley together at Camp Green Lake.