In the semi-autobiographical novel, A Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl describes, in detail, the daily brutality, horrors, and humiliation that stripped so many people of their dignity and humanity in the concentration camps as well as his own struggle to find a sense of meaning in the face of such lifeless horror.
Frankl shares that eventually one's normal reactions to the shock, pity, and disgust, simply shut down and he/she is left in a state of relative apathy. The reader then begins to think that with only callousness can one endure such horrific circumstances. However, in spite of the tragic circumstances, Frankl suggests that the type of prisoner one becomes, regardless of the brutal constraints, depends on some interpersonal decision, not just unchangeable environmental conditions. According to Frankl, even at a time and place where every bit of freedom seems to have been stolen, in the even most deprived conditions one can find: the freedom to choose one’s attitude toward one's own suffering.
While reading Frankl’s piece, I couldn’t help but relate it to an excerpt taken out of Henry Miller’s Wisdom of the Heart. A collection of short stories and essays that he wrote during World War II.
“There is an illusion of ‘end,’ a stasis seemingly like death. But it is only an illusion. Everything, at this crucial point, lies in the attitude which we assume towards the moment.”
-Henry Miller (1891-1980)
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