Man's Search For Meaning: A Literary Analysis

Many think that when times seem unbearable and severe, it is unescapable, with no possibility of ever escaping and surviving such hardships. However, I believe that people can survive almost any suffering if they have a goal to strive for, as shown in Siddhartha, Night, and Man's Search for Meaning.

Written by Herman Hesse, Siddhartha provides a unique experience of how suffering can be overcome with an aspiration in mind, no matter how long it takes. Even at the beginning of the book, Siddhartha realizes he is discontent by the sheltered world of his fancy life of a Brahmin. He believes there is something more, to truly understand and find peace with his innermost self, the goal of achieving Nirvana. He begins with joining the Samanas, believing that one has to suffer to reach this enlightened state; living like the Samanas would create conditions of treacherous life, having to starve, feeling weak in order to feel better (13). Siddhartha even encounters Buddha, and decides it is not worth it to follow him, for he wants to experience life and suffering for himself, instead of being taught second-hand. Eventually he met a girl, Kamala, and it almost
Under "The Importance of the Future in Suffering", it discusses how man "can only live by looking to the future". Only by looking at what is ahead and to think about what could potentially happen can make one give worth in living in. If there is nothing to look for up ahead, what worth is there in living? At the concentration camps during Nazi Germany, prisoners had to aim at finding inner strength by "point out a future goal to which he could look forward". While he sometimes might have to "force his mind to the task", he still gets it done. Additionally, the text states how prisoners who had lost faith in looking at the future, were doomed. "With the loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and