Freedom, is part of the human nature that we all seek to gain. Whether it be because of political reason or some other factor, human beings do are obliged to do things such as moving to a different country or hide to gain their most deserved freedom. Every human being has their natural born rights. However, some people believe that any freedom is conditioned and limited by a different and certain situations. In the book Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktore E. Frankl, the narrator, Frankl dreams of the day he was going to be free again. After being taken to the Auschwitz Jewish camp by the Nazi, Frankl found himself dreading his existence. Along with many others, Frankl experienced one of the most horrific experiences that existed in human history. …show more content…
Determinism states that a person is “completely and unavoidably influenced, shaped and controlled by his/her surroundings.”(Pg. 65). Followers of this idea feel there’s always a situation that might either limit or control their actions. However, Frankl is completely against the theory of determinism. Followers of the idea of determinism feel that people will always be conditioned to be free or have true human liberty. To counter argue that, Frankl questions “is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behavior and reaction to any given surroundings?”(Pg. 65) Frankl feels that people have spiritual and emotional freedom to choose whatever they want to do. In Frankl’s situation he has no physical freedom. He gets severely abused and gets deprived of his natural born human freedoms, however, no one, not even the Nazi, could take Frankl’s spiritual freedom and his attitude. Frankl believes that attitude of choosing apathy, in his case giving up his food and offering to those that were suffering lets him overcome the issue of attitude towards different situations for a better
The unimaginable actions from German authorities in the concentration camps of the Holocaust were expected to be tolerated by weak prisoners like Wiesel or death was an alternate. These constant actions from the S.S. officers crushed the identification of who Wiesel really was. When Wiesel’s physical state left, so did his mental state. If a prisoner chose to have a mind of their own and did not follow the S.S. officer’s commands they were written brutally beaten or even in severe cases sentenced to their death. After Wiesel was liberated he looked at himself in the mirror and didn’t even recognize who he was anymore. No prisoner that was a part of the Holocaust could avoid inner and outer turmoil.
Six million Jews died during World War II by the Nazi army under Hitler who wanted to exterminate all Jews. In Night, Elie Wiesel, the author, recalls his horrifying journey through Auschwitz in the concentration camp. This memoir is based off of Elie’s first-hand experience in the camp as a fifteen year old boy from Sighet survives and lives to tell his story. The theme of this memoir is man's inhumanity to man. The cruel events that occurred to Elie and others during the Holocaust turned families and others against each other as they struggled to survive Hitler's and the Nazi Army’s inhumane treatment.
Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, is an account about his experience through concentration camps and death marches during WWII. In 1944, fifteen year old Wiesel was one of the many Jews forced onto cattle cars and sent to death and labor camps. Their personal rights were taken from them, as they were treated like animals. Millions of men, women, children, Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, disabled people, and Slavic people had to face the horrors the Nazi’s had planned for them. Many people witnessed and lived through beatings, murders, and humiliations. Throughout the memoir, Wiesel demonstrates how oppression and dehumanization can affect one’s identity by describing the actions of the Nazis and how it changed the Jewish
Once again the Jews were picked as scapegoats to help push the political and social agendas of those who held higher office in the form of the Holocaust. Through the processes of propaganda and mass media, the Nazi party was able to desensitize an entire nation of people towards the process of dehumanization. In the reading of Elie Wiesel’s novel Night we were able to gain a personal first hand account of what atrocities were committed against these people in the process of stripping them of their humanity. Upon entering the concentration camps, Eliezer gives us insight into the internal feelings that one experiences when he is stripped of his humanity. He states, “never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes” (Wiesel
Not long ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created. It is a series of thirty human rights that can never be taken away. Many of these rights were violated during the Holocaust. The novel “Night” is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel on his survival and journey through the Holocaust. The memoir focuses on Elie and his father fighting for their survival, and everything they went through. Three articles that were violated in the novel “Night” are the right to equality, freedom from discrimination, and freedom from torture and degrading treatment.
Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worse attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point were they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous example used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were. After being forced into concentration camps, Elie was rudely awakened into reality. Traumatizing incidents such as Nazi persecution or even the mistreatment among fellow prisoners pushed Elie to realize the cruelty around him; Or even the wickedness Elie himself is capable of doing. This resulted in the loss of faith, innocence, and the close bonds with others.
When thinking of freedom, it’s the idea that people are able to act, speak, and have their own thoughts without any restraints. With oppression it’s the prolong of cruel treatment or control. I think the need for freedom and the overcoming of oppression is something that has been an issue since the time of slavery, maybe even before then it 's just that we’re not considered as property in this day in age and we’re entitled to the same rights as everyone else. When I think about it, are we really free and what are the reasons for someone suffering at some point in their life? Nelson Mandela’s reflection, “Working Toward Peace” and Ursula Le Guin, in her fictional essay “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” both discuss these themes throughout
Decisions are everywhere. So very frequently influences come from everywhere. Advertisements, News, Media, Politics. We should choose whether or not we should be vulnerable or whether we should maintain equanimity. The decision determines whether you would be forged into an impeccable target for the abuse. This quote pertains to the Holocaust as told in Frankl’s speech as well as Elie Wiesel’s quote does too. The mental responses of the Jews; presumably, in an inhumane imprisonment must appear a lot more intense than the negligible statements that we may experience about specific physical and sociological states. Even though the prisoners in the concentration camp were undergoing dehumanizing conditions, like lack of sleep, inadequate food,
Every day, people are denied basic necessary human rights. One well known event that striped millions of these rights was the Holocaust, recounted in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night. As a result of the atrocities that occur all around the world, organizations have published declarations such as the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights. It is vital that the entitlement to all rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind, freedom of thought and religion, and the right to a standard of living adequate for health and well-being of themselves be guaranteed to everyone, as these three rights are crucial to the survival of all people and their identity.
Viktor Frankl, the author of the novel Man’s Search For Meaning, a holocaust survivor and also known for his theory of locotherapy, explains the hardships that the holocaust brings while living in a concentration camp. Throughout his experience, he confesses that it is hard to have hope and faith in order to live. He gave strongly worded advice to other inmates and was also a doctor to the victims. He is seen as a powerful, bold, and courageous character towards everyone he meets. His stories and incidents that occur throughout the novel portray locotherapy, which is described as the search for meaning in life. By setting goals and looking toward the future can help to push through hardships such as the holocaust.
Nothing in life is guaranteed, but the one thing that humans demand is freedom. Throughout history, there are countless cases where groups of people fought for their freedom. They fought their battles in strongly heated debates, protests, and at its worst, war. Under the assumption that the oppressors live in complete power, the oppressed continuously try to escape from their oppressors in order to claim what is rightfully theirs: the freedom of choice. In Emily Dickinson’s poems #280, #435, and #732 and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, freedom is represented by an individual’s ability to make their own decisions without the guidance, consultation, or outside opinion of others in order to find their true sense of self. Once an individual is physically and spiritually free, they can find their true sense of self.
A excruciating pain, like the loss of a family member or close friend, may cause a person to lose faith for better times in life. This particular source of pain was seen all too much during the Holocaust. Between eleven and seventeen million people lost their lives in concentration and work camps all across Europe including Frankl’s own family. For the ones that this tragedy directly affected, their past occasionally became their present and future: “To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is free to take a stand towards the conditions” (Frankl 130). Frankl explains that while people have the ability to change their outlook on their surroundings, it’s often difficult to escape the aftermath of horrific events from the past. Humans cannot control when, where, and how they were raised. All these factors play a crucial part in the development of one’s personality and behaviors. Your view on life can either help you progress or halt your success in finding your meaning. A person who is lost in their past will not glimpse into the possibilities of what the future hold for them. Instead they will only be in a continuous state of nihilism and lack the motivation to have any type of future at
Determinism is one of the three types of freedom. Determinism is the view that every event and human action in your life are brought upon us by previous experiences with the natural laws that govern the world. Determinism believes that human freedom is an illusion (BOOK). Some of the causes to why determinists believe that human freedom is an illusion is: human nature, environment, psychological forces, and social dynamics. An example of human nature is taking a vitamin or eating healthy food to balance your diet. We do this because we believe that our physical bodies have a causal relationship with a diet or taking a vitamin. An example of the environment is when you bring an umbrella with you to work because you know it is going to rain.
First of Frankl’s beliefs include one must have nothing to have a Higher Purpose, and his view of determinism. I for one share similar views in Buddhism, and I agree and disagree with some of his views. I strongly disagree with this statement simply because it states that I cannot find meaning nor advance to a high state of mentality because I have not endured suffering and “being naked” as great as Frankl suffered. A Christian and Catholic writer, Peter Kreeft, share the same ideas with Frankl. Kreeft wrote in Three Philosophies of Life; “Not all of us lose our children, our health, our possessions, and our confidence in one day. But all of us must learn to lose everything but God…” This is an example of why I disagree with Frankl and Kreeft because I do not believe in a Higher Power such as God. There is one example that I do believe in which is his rejection of determinism. Jeff McMahon, an English professor, writes the definition on his article Is Man’s Search for Meaning a Religion? “…we are the product of environmental and biological faces we cannot control...” However, people who do believe in determinism argue that every single thing that they do is predetermined. An example of this is if a person robs a store and is arrested that person claims that it was “God’s will.
The meaning of life, defined by Victor E. Frankl, is the will to find your meaning in life. It is not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. He believes that if you are approached with the question of “what is the meaning of my life” or in this case, “life is meaningless,” then you should reverse the question to that person asking the question. For example: What are you bringing to me? What are you as an individual contributing to this life? This forces the person in question to take a look at themselves and to ultimately be responsible. Frankl says that if you are a responsible member of society than the meaning of life transcends from yourself rather from your own psyche. He also says that if we for some reason cannot find meaning within ourselves it has to be from some outside source. This is referred to as service. And an example of this is love. Victor Frankl describes three ways in which we can discover the meaning of life; Creating work-doing a deed, experiencing something-someone, and by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.