Beloved

“Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.” Viktor Frankl accounted his experience at the Auschwitz concentration camp in a book named “Man’s Search for Meaning”. Other than the never-ending work & the heinous events he witnessed, Frankl documented the advice of a fellow colleague, the thought of suicide, his relationship with the Capo, and many more aspects of the Holocaust that people have not delved into. Comparable to the adversity felt by Frankl, Toni Morrison chronicles the struggle of slavery in North America in her book “Beloved”. Morrison illustrates the psychological impact of slavery through the characters Paul D, Sethe, and Denver’s repression of their memories. With the help of each other, they accept their past and piece the fragments of their identities together. Man’s Search for Meaning and Beloved both describe the hardships of two very appalling times in human history: the Holocaust & slavery in North America, respectively. Similarly, Frankl and Morrison emphasize the destruction these events have on human identity, the importance of community to survive, & meaning as the primary purpose of life, of which love is an origin. The Stranger on the other hand, written by Albert Camus, highlights the idea of the Absurd, where there is no meaning to life.

The environment of a concentration camp & slavery in North America dismantled the victim’s identities, while the support of other victims helped them survive. In the “second stage of his psychological reactions,” (Frankl, 34) his feelings “were blunted, and he watched unmoved” (Frankl, 34) at a twelve-year-old boy who had frostbite all over his toes due working outside without shoes on. The environment abundant with “the dy...

... middle of paper ...

...one plan for, the next day.” (Morrison, 83) The only growth in Sethe’s individuality came right before Beloved came, in Paul D’s love, but there is nothing like a mother’s love, and Beloved completely dismantled Paul D and Sethe’s relationship. When Paul D left, the love between Sethe, Denver, and Beloved became possessive as all three merged into one entity. “You are mine You are mine You are mine”. (Morrison, 256) Beloved starts to eat away at Sethe, as she “took it, swelled up with it, grew taller on it.” (Morrison 295) Sethe let Beloved reenter her life, and what came out of it was a slow, painful death that was only stopped by Denver. Motherly love became Sethe’s demise, reversed from Frankl’s own life, where he used love to survive. To one brings meaning to their life, while the other restrains individuality. For one love is the problem, the other the solution.