Everyday Life In A Concentration Camp example essay topic

Man's Search for Meaning is a relatively short but powerful novel about an experience through a concentration camp from the eyes of psychologist and author, Victor E. Frankl. "I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any condition, even the most miserable ones". (Victor Frankel). The first half of the book takes place in concentration camps throughout Europe, including the legendary Auschwitz. In his account of the camps, Frankl describes the nature of man when subjected to immense suffering.

He gives large contrasts of prisoners giving in to the suffering and how they rise above it. His ideas deal with the value of life even at times of suffering and hopelessness and how everyone has to understand that. One of the main topics he discusses concerning suffering is that of hope. Without hope then there would be no point in anyone enduring the suffering with which they endured during these Nazi concentration camps. Frankl says that, "Every man was controlled by one thought only: to keep himself alive for the family waiting for him at home, and to save his friends. With no hesitation, therefore, he would arrange for another prisoner, another 'number,' to take his place in the transport".

This really shows how much suffering people went through just in hope of returning to loved ones. Another one of his lines from his book is, "Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it". In this Frankl says that suffering is a result of emotion and that as soon as we realize this suffering then that is when we can put an end to the suffering. Frankel thought the prisoners ordeals were in phases, they showed emotions in three different phases.

The first phase was the minds of these prisoners immediately after being detained and herded off to the several different concentration camps. The second phase was their minds after incarceration and them becoming accustomed to the everyday life of prison life. The third phase was their minds after being released and no longer a prisoner. This book showed the reader that some minds are stronger and can endure more than others can. The mind can expand when you need it to expand, it can cause your body and soul to endure one more hit, one more night without food. It can also fail you.

The mind is as strong as you make it. This book showed the reader that the mind can make your life more suitable for your lifestyle. The mind can make you live for tomorrow if you have something to live for, even if it is only in your mind. The mind can also make you not want to live. If your mind has nothing to live for, eventually death will come.

Frankl clearly believed that all humans' lives have a particular meaning but that meaning must be sought out individually. "How was the everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?" He wants people to understand the value of their lives. In his book, Frankl displays man's resilience, even in the horrendous Nazi death camps. More then once Frankl quoted Nietzsche by saying "He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how" and 'Was Mich nicht um bringt, macht mich starker.

' (That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.) ". These quotes illustrate the type of attitude, which Frankl implied. I see now that the questions that life asks are what is important, just as important as the answers that I continually struggle to find. The point is to hear what life wants from me. To learn this was a battle, like climbing a never-ending upward hill. However, now that I have reached its summit, I can mold my life around this newfound discovery accordingly, in hopes that I will hear and answer the questions that life has in store for me.

Just as Frankl has said, it does not matter what I expect from life, what matters is what life expects from me. I do not ask about the meaning of life anymore. Instead, I think of myself as the one being questioned every day. The meaning statement that Frankl wanted us to get might have been: life is in your mind; your mind dictates emotions and how you respond to certain situations and the mind will determine your spirit to survive.

A present day application would be:.