3rd Blog

Under the sub-title The Will to Meaning on page 99, Viktor E. Frankl discusses what the title of the book means. He says "Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a "secondary rationalization" of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to live".

This passage comes in the 2nd half of the book after they have been liberated from the concentration camp.  He talks about how hard it is for the prisoners to leave the camp once they have been informed that they are now free.  These men dreamed of their freedom for years and the reality that awaited them was from what they dream t of at night. In their dreams they go home to their residences and are met by family. In reality, they return to find their home has someone else living in it or it no longer exists. The wife and children that they hoped to reunite with have all been gassed in the gas chambers.  They have to completely learn how to live life again and they also have to deal with the loss of the things that kept them going while imprisoned. Frankl says that this is more of a reason to live, but many felt it as the straw. He talks of how two men contemplated suicide but choose against it for two completely different reasons. One man fought to live just for the hope that he would be reunited with his son. The other was a scientist and he decided not to end his life because he was concerned that once he was out that no one else could do his job as well as he could.  Frankl  gave a speech to the prisoners in his hut right before their liberation encouraging the men to not give up on life. This speech came as many of their fellow comrades were committing suicide and he wanted them to have something to live for.

Times Read: 60 minutes on October 18, 2011
                    30 minutes on October 20, 2011 (While my daughter slept)
                   

2nd Blog on Mans Search for Meaning

Wow! This is riveting. I almost wish I would have waited to read it and not during such a hard time in my personal life. I read for an hour last night while I lay in bed and I cried a good 15 minutes of it. It is so depressing and uplifting at the same time. I could also say that maybe it is a good idea for me to read this book at this point in my life. It shows me that although my entire world is falling down around me, it could always be worse. I feel as if I have no reason to be as upset as I had been. Now on to the book.



I picked up where the author and the other inmates were working on a chain gang during the middle of winter. These men were forced to dig holes in the frozen ground. I would assume to bury bodies. They would dig from sun up to sun down making little progress in the frozen ground while the guards screamed at them. They were struck by the butt of the gun for being to slow. These men dug in the trenches and were forbidden to talk to each, but when the guards were not around they talked of what they would do once they were free. They watched everyone around them die off by either disease, starvation, beatings, or sent off to the gas chambers and they still had a small glimpse of hope that they would one day be free. All of this was upsetting, but what got to me the most was the way he spoke of his wife." Suddenly there was a silence and into the night a violin sang a desperately sad tango, an unusual tune not spoiled by frequent playing. The violin wept and part of me wept with it, for on that same day someone  had a twenty-fourth birthday. That someone lay in another part of the Auschwitz camp, possibly only a few hundred or thousand yards away, and yet completely out of reach. That someone was my wife". This broke my heart. There was another passage where he speaks about being close to death while he lay in the sick hut for four days. He said his wife came to him and they talked about many things. He said he could smell and touch her. He really believes that she was there because he later found out that she had already died, while he was hoping to be reunited once they were liberated. He believes her spirit visited him during that time. I left off with the author working at Dachau. He was on a rest team taking care of ailing patients. He is in the process of trying to escape with a fellow inmate who used to be a surgeon. I am hoping to get more reading done this evening if I can get the rest of my homework and household chores done.

I read this book for 30 minutes while in the tub on Thursday, October 13, 2011.
I read this book for 60 minutes on Saturday, October 15, 2011.

My 1st Blog Entry on Man's Search for Meaning

Well, I started reading a book that I found in my brother's pile of books. It is called Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. I heard that is was a good book and my brother said it was something he believed everyone should read at one time or another. So far, the book is incredibly sad, but I can't put it down. I expected it to be sad, because it is about the Holocaust. I did not expect the author to be so calm. He talks about how they were rounded up and put on to the trains to head to concentration camps. I would not have thought one camp to be better than the other, but Frankl discusses how empty and defeated those on the train felt when they pulled up and read the sign of their camp. They instantly expected death and I honestly thought they all did that, but I will research the subject now that it has been brought to my attention. Frankl explains that once the prisoners were transported it was usually to the gas chambers. When Frankl's train pulled in some were divided up and taken to the gas chamber, while others were picked to do other jobs.  I learned that  Capos were actually Jews that had no regard for man kind or fellow Jew. They did what ever they felt they had to do to stay alive, even betray family and friends.  I will try to finish this book by this weekend or at least get close to finishing.  I plan to be on again soon and give an update about Frankl and his fight to survive.