What struck me the most about Frankl's A Man's Search for Meaning, was his response to the situation in which the SS guard beat him on the head with a stick simply because the man behind him stood slightly to one side of the line. He states that "at such a moment it is not the physical pain which hurts the most (and this applies to adults as much as to punished children); it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all" (36). In this instance, Frankl is addressing the same irrationality and lack of reason that Meursault speaks of in The Stranger. Although both characters come across this significance in different ways, they address this randomness in pain and suffering and suggest attachment to others as a way to cope with the unreasonableness of it all.
While describing the phases that accompany one's survival at a concentration camp, Frankl notes that "the most painful part of the beatings is the insult which they imply." He adds that the relationship between those in power and those in the concentration camp is that of a domestic animal "with which you have so little in common that you don't even punish it" (36). I think that this take on relation with others and more importantly others' perception of you, is similar to what Meursault would have realized post-epiphany at the end of his life. Meursault lives nearly his entire life with the philosophy that attachment to others is simply a way to cope with life's pain and irrationality and that in order to truly be happy, one must remain unattached from other humans. Towards the end of the book, he begins to value connections to others, understands why his mother took a fiancé at the end of her life, and even states that some recognition of his death (even if hateful) would be better than no recognition at all. While in very different situations at two very different extremes, both characters address the importance of human relationship as a way to cope with the irrationality of life.
I agree that both men see the randomness of pain and suffering in similar ways, but I wouldn't say that Meursault made the conscious decision to use people only as an escape. I think he has a certain nonchalance about the world as a whole, and his relationships with his mother and his friends and his girlfriend were just as meaningless for the sake of it, as they were just things that he had and something to do with his life. But conversely, Frankl's choice was definitely on purpose, and definitely helped him to avoid care. Meursault accomplished the same, just a little bit less directly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Isabel. Everything we are reading seems to connect. The randomness of pain and suffering is always present.
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