Man's Search For Meaning Essay

Viktor Frankl recalls his experiences in a Nazi camp during World War Two in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning. He outlines the horrific conditions prisoners faced, along with the uncertainty of a future lying in the hands of an SS officer. Theodor Adorno believed if one survived such a catastrophe as this, he would be subject to survivor’s guilt (qtd. in Pytell 14). Although Frankl did survive, the guilt he may have felt was devoted to finding man’s will of meaning. Spending most of his captivity laying down tracks, Frankl was able to compose a manuscript during this time. This manuscript provided a firsthand account that could not have been exaggerated over the years. The prisoners, according to Frankl, were slaves and treated as such.

A friend of Frankl’s in the camp warned him and others to shave and look fit to avoid being sent to the “showers,” or gas chambers. Soon enough, Frankl realized that apathy was a “necessary mechanism of self-defense” (28). When Frankl mentions of a time an officer hit him, he noted that the verbal insults one may receive was much worse than the physical injury. Frankl 's survival of his prison term was, in part, the result of his will to survive, along with other pre-destined factors. To quote Nietzsche, he had a "Why to live for" (page). Through the torturous tasks Frankl had endured, he kept warm thoughts of his wife (37). Nostalgia provided the prisoner with a safe haven, so to speak. He also discusses how keeping light of the situation is "some kind of a trick learned while mastering the language" (44).
Eventually, Frankl was dealt with chances to escape. Even more so, he had the ability to change his risky date. Both times he declined to intervene. Believing that fate would take its course, Frankl let what may happen happen. In doing this, Frankl ACTUALLY escaped death, to the contrary of the servant in the Death of Teheran (56). This is evidence that Frankl 's survival was, partially, completely out of his