Beloved, Civilization And Its Discontents, And Man 's Search For Meaning

Viktor Frankl’s thesis found in Man’s Search for Meaning is repeated multiple times, in different ways throughout his book. On page 111 he states, “According to logotherapy, we can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering” (Frankl). This is not saying that all of those qualities have to be present to find one’s meaning though especially suffering. The only way to find the meaning of life is by answering your own call for life, not what others value as meaning. Each meaning

This will to meaning is the culmination of our developmental process. To cultivate an individual’s capacity to find meaning in their life is the greatest goal, and the source of mankind’s anxiety and neuroses. We all wish to find the meaning within our life, and are unfulfilled when we miss the mark. But according to Frankl, there is always meaning in life, in every single moment, from one to the next we all are capable of making a choice about ourselves, and beyond that, have a responsibility to do so. Even with the transitory nature of our existence and hopelessness in the face of certain death, there is still meaning to be found, there is still freedom to be earned.

We often tend to think that some people’s lives are more meaningful to others or feel as if we are missing something more difficult to get a handle on. Meaning is a word we look at in the search

Throughout the novel Grendel by John Gardner, the main character Grendel is searching for answers about life, most importantly the meaning of life. He is confused with how he wants to view life and searches for some reason to why he exists. He turned too many for these answers; his mother, man, and the dragon, but no one could provide Grendel the answer he so desperately sought, all just pushed him to the idea of existentialism.

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive...." Joseph Campbell made this comment on the search for meaning common to every man's life. His statement implies that what we seem bent on finding is that higher spark for which we would all be willing to live or die; we look for some key equation through which we might tie all of the experiences of our life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. He states, however, that we will never find some great

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl is filled to the brim with rhetorical devices from all three sections of the text. Particularly in his section about logotherapy, Frankl’s practice to find an individual’s meaning of life, he explores the three main meanings of life: accomplishment, love, and suffering. This area uses a plethora of comparison, such as parallelism and metaphor. Recurring themes are used to draw back to Frankl’s three life meanings, like word repetition and alliteration. Frankl’s use of rhetorical devices allows his audience to focus on their individual possibilities and incorporate his ideology into society.

In Walden by Henry David Thoreau, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Beloved by Toni Morrison, the authors describe cruel and flawed aspects of society as system and human nature in individuals within a society. As a punishment for adultery, Hester Prynne, the main character in The Scarlet Letter, is required to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest and stand on the scaffold in the town center every day to endure public shaming. During his stay at Walden Pond, Thoreau escapes the rigidity and critical nature of society, denouncing societal norms and prejudices in favor of a simpler, more solitary life. Throughout Beloved, Sethe witnesses the horrors of slavery both first hand and through her friends and family. While each work

In Richard Taylor’s chapter “Meaning of Life”, he concluded that objectively, life is meaningless. He stressed his opinion by arguing that life tends to be a cycle of goals that cumulate to nothing. These goals require sequences of exhausting work and attempt that will continue throughout the rest of life but will have no meaning. As one goal is reached, the next is sought out for, forgetting the one that was just achieved. I do not support Taylor on his objective meaningless of life. Life has a meaning, even if it is just being alive, we were created by God and he has a plan for us. Goals help us become better people and they are important to us. Taylor explained that we can find meaning in our lives when a will is put behind our actions. This means that meaningfulness can be found within the veins of anyone. I agree with Taylor, that our actions should be of interest to us, yet his account fails to show that they will make our lives have a meaning. There is no validation, that a change of the state of mind will cause our lives to achieve meaning.

The author brilliantly uses contrasting examples of what meaning is not to extract her argument on how to obtain meaning in a life. Her first example involves someone who spends day and night watching television and drinking beer. While those two activities in themselves aren’t bad, the fact that this person is living in “hazy passivity…/…unconnected to anyone or anything, going nowhere, achieving nothing,” is certainly not a life of meaning; and she refers to this as

Mankind has always had one question no living person can answer. What is the meaning of our existence? Are we just here to just run around this planet doing nothing but survive or does everything we do have a purpose? Samuel Beckett, a well-studied French writer, seems to write in a way that makes his readers feel like mankind cannot find its identity. He validates the idea that humans are just wondering about life with no meaning with his writing in Endgame.

The audience is able to learn that an indulgence and temptation is apart of life. Individuals have to be able to focus on the present and not just the future. The constituents of Berlevaag were so concentrated on life after death rather than the current life they were living; they were not living in reality because they had believed and been taught that reality occurs in the afterlife. However, Babette was able to teach them otherwise through the feast. She brought the disciples of the Dean and the sister’s together in communion. With the help of General Loewenheilm’s rant on his mental and spiritual journey as well as his regrets along the journey the guests of the dinner were able to reflect on their journeys and how they have not been living their lives to their full potential because they have been so blinded by religion. Babette made the people of Berlevaag realize that life needs to be enjoyed as much as possible. This short story is not only a lesson for the constituents of Berlevaag, but it is a lesson for the readers as well. We the readers are taught to be more like Babette, be selfless, to know our own worth, and appreciate what we have on earth while we still have the opportunity. Therefore to answer the question posed in the title, the meaning to life is determined by several subfactors within religion and

This quote shows that Sethe never had the opportunity to feel her mother's compassion or affection, more commonly known as a “mother’s love”. This love is often personified in a mother who will lay down her life for her child. It is known as a selfless sacrifice. Sethe’s mother was always working and never had time to spend with her, let alone time to nurse her. One could say Sethe’s relationship with her mother was non-existent, Sethe constantly reminds herself how she felt abandoned when she was younger. She had to be nursed by Nan, a women who’s job was to breastfeed children of the whites as well as other fellow slaves. “Nan had to nurse white babies and me too because Ma'am was in the rice. The little white babies got it first and I got what was left. Or none. There was no nursing milk to call my own" (Morrison, Beloved, 200). Put differently, Sethe did not have the opportunity to create a special mother-daughter bond that most mothers create with their child, to ensure the child's protection and enrich their development. Therefore she was not given a shot to be a real daughter to anyone, she had no support or love from the only family she had, which was her

But also in the book it discusses how people do not agree with creating one’s own purpose. They think that if they create their own purpose, then that means that their life meaning is not as meaningful. I do agree with this to some extent but I also think that we know ourselves the best and if we create our own life meaning it can be the most fulfilling. A quote from this chapter is, “What matters is not necessarily what the inventor had in mind, but the uses or purposes the innovation actually has” (p.12). This quote is saying that for example the predetermined meaning of humans is not really important at all. It is what purposes a human can bring about in this world.

There is no meaning to life. Life has no inherent meaning. The meanings of our lives are chosen by what we feel and experience or are assigned to us by others. The ends of our existence cannot be foreseen and will not be limited by such things as destiny. These are the ideas and philosophies of those who believe life to be non-teleological. A famous literary example of a non-teleologist is a man named John Steinbeck. Throughout his life Steinbeck experimented with Darwinism, transcendentalism, realism, socialism, naturalism, and Taoism (Endnotes 1). Each of these ways of thinking show up in Steinbeck’s philosophy and therefore his work cannot be classified specifically. All that may be said is that he had a non-teleological way of

means is only found in the darkest of times. Just as bliss is found in the relief of pain, the meaning of life comes in the relief of ignorance. Your life is molded by the experiences you had and the people that you meet. Their life lessons can be your life lessons in order for you to make room for more; for the more you know more fortunate you are. You all have your own gifts that enables you to face the hardships of life. Even the ability to breathe means you have the fight within you. Just as the surrounding fight has the breath within them. The Light Trying to do good, makes you good. Wanting to do good is the first step of a good man, but it should not be merited same as the doer of good deeds. As long as you seek nothing in return than