Submitted by: Submitted by rcroke5
Views: 10
Words: 1736
Pages: 7
Category: Literature
Date Submitted: 07/29/2015 02:18 PM
The life changing novel “A Man’s Search For Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl conveys a terrible and awe inspiring tale of a young man’s journey through several different concentration camps and the brutality he encountered. His story makes everyone wonder how anyone could ever be treated like the Jewish were during the Second World War. Frankl attempts to tell his readers different life lessons he discovered that gave him the motivation to keep fighting even though there was little hope to look forward to. None of the prisoners knew the whereabouts or safety of their family, most of which were killed right away upon entering the camp. Prisoners were given almost no food daily and many died from hunger and other diseases associated with their treatment. Viktor finally got liberated after years of being slaved away and torn apart physically, mentally, and psychologically.
Luckily for the narrator, he was a doctor with a specialty in neurology and psychiatry. His knowledge about the human brain and how a person functions under distress helped him keep his and the other detainees morale high. He taught everyone to look forward to a future goal and use it as motivation to get out of the concentration camps alive. Frankle breaks his imprisonment into three psychological phases based on the experience one had at the camp; shock, apathy and their liberation. The purpose of this paper is to describe the effects the narrator’s culture and gender had on his imprisonment, how society responded to his problems once he came out with his story, and whether the writer or his “family” is mentally healthy or abnormal.
In the case of Viktor Frankl, his culture played an enormous role in his imprisonment. Throughout World War II, the Nazis persecuted millions of Jews simply because of their faith. The Nazis planned on creating a perfect Arian race while eliminating those who did not fit their criteria. Frankl was one of millions to enter a concentration camp but only one of the few to...