Man's Search for Meaning

This semester, we have learned a great deal about great literature, history, and literary movements. From Hellfire and brimstone to Vietnam War stories, literature follows the patterns of history and culture. From inspiring our search for ultimate truth and meaning to drawing us into a community, great literature is important and beneficial for every member of the human race to read and study. Great literature is important and necessary, and literature reflects the patterns of history. Firstly…

Mind over Matter Only the most intelligent people understand to what extent people are able to control their lives with their minds. In Man’s Search for Meaning by Vik E. Frankl, Jews in concentration camps use their minds to escape from their daily tortures. Meursault did not use his mind to control himself and paid the price in The Stranger by Albert Camus. The Wachowski brothers directed “The Matrix”, in which Neo used his mind to escape from the Matrix, and the Oracle tricked his mind in…

goes on further to describe how if you are actually in love and committed, you have the freedom to be yourself and not put on a facade. Fromm is not the only author/philosopher we learned about in class that relates to Hooks, though. In Man’s Search for Meaning and All About Love, Frankl and Hooks’ views on love and suffering overlap heavily and are essentially the same. Hooks and Frankl both believe that love is the only way to fully comprehend one’s partner. In addition, Frankl focuses…

Fyodor Dostoyevsky created the novel, Notes From Underground, holding insightful thoughts on the purpose and meaning of life. Within the novel, Dostoyevsky creates the character, the Underground Man. He laments human’s inconsistencies and their inability to grasp the meaninglessness of existence; while they work tirelessly to exert control over their uncontrollable environments. Human desire for power is epitomized in their attempts to rebel against the physiological laws of nature that govern…

and the existentialist’s (as set out by Sartre and De Beauvoir) positions on the meaning and value of human life. Which is the best supported position (be sure to give reasons for your judgment), and what problems does it still face? How might it respond to these problems? In this essay I will compare and contrast Camus’s, Nagel’s, and the existentialists’, specifically Sartre and De Beauvoir, positions on the meaning and value of human life. In addition, I will support Camus’s argument, as…

Cat’s Cradle is the story of a man’s life leading up to his discovery of the religion Bokononism and the end of the world. He shares with us the specific terminology used by Bokononists and what their meanings are, as well as real world connection to Bokononism. This real world connection to Bokononism is what becomes the ultimate point of the story: the hope of changing one’s perspective and how one copes with oneself and the hopelessness of life and existence. Cat’s Cradle is the story of a…

son as the sole survivors of a post nuclear holocaust. The Road is essentially an existential tale as the father and son have one focus: to survive and to attain some meaning in their lives. Without any cultural and economic influences, the father and son must carve out their existences from a world devoid of life. The only meaning that they have come from the paternal and filial love that they feel, the essence of the family and life. Love maintains humanity, as is illustrated through the…

One can argue that man’s human nature is both inherently good and evil, but it is through the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden that each generation born after them was no longer born without shame, which Hsun Tzu does a great job of showing how man’s nature is inherently evil. Hsun Tzu was a Chinese scholar who followed the Confucian belief who lived from 300-230 BCE. He wrote this piece of literature explaining how man is not born with an innocent or pure nature, meaning that in the…

The Theory of Meaning Patricia L. Starck “Man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life” (Frankl, 1992). This powerful statement by Viktor Frankl is among the fundamental concepts upon which the theory of meaning was developed by Patricia L. Starck. Starck, (2014) describes her 20 year professional relationship with Viktor Frankl and her extensive involvement with Frankl’s logotherapy as being great influences on the development of the…

not know how. Conflict was faced by Anne Frank the author of “Anne Frank the Diary of a Young Girl” and Anne wanted to stay positive even in knowing that her friends and others she knew were taken and might be dead. In the short story “A Man’s Search for Meaning” Viktor E. Frankl, and his friends, stay positive even while in a concentration camp and play games together. Staying positive in the arise of conflict can help with health of the mind and body. Staying positive can affect the happiness…