Man's Search For Meaning - Developing Philosophical Questions

For our work with Frankl's book today, please refer to this document.

Man's Search For Meaning - opening thoughts

On Monday we started the final book we'll read together, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search For Meaning.

To get us thinking about the Holocaust and what we already know about it, we shared stories then read this quotation from Elie Wiesel's Night, a book many of you have already read:

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never."

 

We noted how in this brief excerpt Wiesel raised issues about his faith, his beliefs, the actions and inactions of those around him, and what it means to go on living after such an experience.

 

Today we'll start reading Frankl's book to see how he raises and explores these questions, in addition to a few others.

 

Here is a link to the calendar for the unit.

Here is a link to the handout, including questions, we'll use for our initial reading.

Existentialism

Here are the PowerPoint slides I shared in class when I introduced the philosophy of Existentialism:

The Stranger - Six Word Stories

Today in class you wrote a 6-word version of the relationship between Meursault and different characters in chapters 4 and 5 of part 1.  Here they are;

Chapter 4 - Meursault and Marie

• no emotional commitment - a physical desire
• physically attached but not emotionally attached
• Marie's clingy; Meursault's distant.  They're awkward

Chapter 4 - Meursault and Raymond

• Casually ignoring elephant in the room
• Raymond uses Meursault for meaningless friendship
• Raymond dictates and confides; Meursault compies

Chapter 5 - Meursault and Marie

• She's desperate; he couldn't care less
• He's just not that into you

Chapter 5 - Meursault and Robot Woman

• In love with someone like him

Chapter 5 - Meursault and Salamano

• Old man rambling about old memories

Chapter 5 - Meursault and his boss

• wants to obey but no obligation
• they aren't close and don't care

Life of Pi - your questions

Here are your questions about the novel:

• What does a person need to survive?  How does hopehelp a person survive?
• Does Pi train Richard Parker, or does RP train Pi?
• Can a person believe in many gods?
• How does fear help a person survive and believe?
• How can animals provide hope for survival?
• Is having a companion in a surviaval situation what keeps Pi from death and despair?
• When you lose everything, what do you need to survive?
• When Pi gets stranded in the Pacific Ocean how does his need to survive interfere with his moral values?
• What knowledge will transform someone's perception of the truth?
• At what point does fantasy become reality for pi, possibly "blinding" him?
• When stranded out in the middle of nowhere, on boat, what kind of motivation/hope will drive you to survive and what kind of elements will provide you with this motivation: such as Science, Religion, or even the freedom to do what you want? Then let’s say you do survive, how will you tell your story, as a media perspective and spice the story up, or tell the brutal truth that can horror people?
• Throughout the book we can argue that Richard Parker saves Pi and keeps him alive, but does God and religion play a bigger factor in keeping him going; and when Pi is supposedly talking to Richard Parker, is he actually talking to God? 
• At what point should Pi let survival overcome his morals and beliefs?
• What is god's role/purpose for the discovery and nature of the island?
• How does the source of Pi's motivation change over time?
• Why is it that the "better story"/the truth sometimes the harder one to stick to in the face of others?
• What will you do in order to survive?  How far will you push beyond yourself and your morals?
• When the book talks about adaptation, does it mean we are motivated to adapt out of fear? If so, then does this fear influence us to act out in abnormal and sometimes savage ways?
• How does fear influence Pi's perception of animals?
• Does having a companion in times of survival help someone have hope for their future?
• How does perception alter the conflict of fiction vs. reality?
• Does survival take precedent over one’s personal morals, and by doing so, change one’s identity?
• How does one’s faith in G-d and religion change their perception of occurrences?
• Does faith, belief, and fear change how one perceives both of Pi’s stories?
• Why is the humanistic behavior displayed in animals more acceptable than the animalistic behavior displayed in humans? How do the elements of belief, G-d, and fear create a better story?
• How do the elements of belief, G-d, and fear create a better story?
• Pi is someone that has strength, and motivation to live in a time of fear, but how was he able to push aside the death of his family? Through God/Religion, Hope or something different?
• How do needs motivate?
• Can you kill and still hold true to your morals?
• Does loss makes someone’s faith stronger or weaker?
  
  
  

Life of Pi - Essay Time

Over the course of the past several weeks, we've raised a wide range of issues and questions related to Yann Martel's Life of Pi.  Now, it's your turn to connect these dots - to examine the ways in which a question about the book is answered by it.

Your response will be in the form of an essay - either a single-text analytic essay or a hybrid, connecting an outside text or personal story to the novel.  For both essays, you will be forming and supporting an argument about the novel in terms of what it means and why.

Since the essay will be 7+ pages, you'll need a wide range of evidence.  Be sure to include all four parts of the book, remembering they are not in chronological order.  

Furthermore, an effective essay is organized by points, not by examples.  You are not just pointing to examples of a particular idea or action - you are taking the time to examine the language, the implied layers of meaning, and the ways in which the novel functions as a whole.  Thus you are focusing not on observations but on interpretations.  Each section of your essay will benefit from having a clear topic sentence.  I highly recommend making a sentence outline, looking something like this:

• Thesis / argument:
• Point 1:
• Supporting evidence (3+ examples)
• Point 2:
• Supporting evidence (3+ examples)
• Point 3:
• Supporting evidence (3+ examples)

It might help to think of the format of interpretive questions we used:  "When the book says ____, does it mean ____?  If so, then ____?"  In order, these are the fact, interpretation, and implication.  Another way to say this is the "show - mean - matter" approach: show the example, clarify what it means, then explain why it matters to your thesis / point.

It also might help to think of your sections as:

• Point 1: the challenge
• Point 2: the (attempted) solution / actions taken
• Point 3: the results

We'll have time in the computer lab on Thursday.  If you want to send me a rough draft, I'll be happy to give you feedback on it.  In class we'll discuss how to do this and what the deadlines are.

The final version of the essay is due Tuesday, March 5th.

Life of Pi - Garden of Eden

Greetings!

I am out at a conference today (hopefully, considering the weather).

For today, you read chapters 92-94, but we'll focus on 92 - the island.  Quite a chapter.

To spur your thinking, please read this version of the Garden of Eden story (click that link).  At the end of the document you'll find a question.  Please type out your response and e-mail it to me by the end of the period.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the end of the book!