A Literary Essay: Frankl's Postscript

In this postscript by Frankl he addresses tragic optimism and defines the main idea behind life is by saying yes to life despite everything happening; pain, guilt, or death. He explains the nature of his philosophy as an optimistic one and tries to explain that everything does not hold a good meaning but the need to hold a positive thinking that life is much worth living no matter what one is faced with even in suffering (Walker). The final statement in the postscript mean a lot to the reader and it worth mentioning them. Why publish the book anonymously and what could be gained from this? These two statements mean a lot to the reader, the most important thing worth addressing in the first place is the main behind the book as compared to the identity of the book. From the work, we realize the need to identify the important things in life and to prioritize them. Taking this book as an example what is the most important thing in the book? The author of the book or the content in the book. We tend to get distracted by little things from the main idea in most of the things we do in life. In this case, we tend to lose track of why we are reading the book and start focusing on other irrelevant things such as the author of the book as per Frankl understanding.

The process of narrowing down our focus to a particular thing helps us find the meaning as to why we do different things, and this gives us a sense of direction. With this in place, one is in the same position while reading this book (Walker). The author of the book may be provided, and you find the reader having deviated from the sole purpose of the book and starts analyzing the author. It would have been more productive if the author was anonymous then the reader would stick to the main goal behind reading the book.

Analysis of the two sentences from Frankls Mans Search for Meaning.

Since Auschwitz we know what Man is capable of: from the book by Frankl, it is possible to realize the things that a person can undergo and endure at the end of the day. What matters is the mindset of a person. Frankl tries to analyze some of the things one went through during Auschwitz, and from this, he also addresses some of the people who failed to endure the pain, torture among many more thing (Walker). The ability to survive through all that is by setting your mind to see something beyond all that. Man loses focus and hopes the minute they lose the idea behind the things they are going through. With this, the person is unable to endure anymore in Auschwitz the left option was death if one was unable to survive through all the hardships then. Despite the fact the hardships in Auschwitz Frankl asserts that man is always free, this may sound confusing in some manner but in man's case the innermost self of a person can never be taken away from the person or can never be damaged (Walker). This is the capability of a man and can only be unleashed the minute one realizes this in themselves. Nothing has the ability to restrain one's innermost self not the torture, the mistreatment or any sort of illness. This helps a person maintain their humanity and dignity in any kind of a situation they are faced. This clearly portrays the capabilities of a person. Also, the use of the terms capability of man excludes no one hence this means the innermost self-theory applies to every human being despite the condition one is subjected to.

With Frankl story, it is possible to admit to the fact that man is capable of changing his future and nothing has the ability to predict once future or know it. It is completely dependant on an individual decision on what to do with the choices they are faced with. No biological factors or sociological factors can be applied to predict once future. No one would have seen Frankl from his experience to where he got ever having a connection, and this shows how a man's capabilities are unlimited and unpredictable. The man happens to have the ability to transcend all the factors around him/her and become something of his own making (Walker). From the book, Frankl tells the reader about Dr. J who was a mass murderer and a truly terrible person but he also tells us of having met up with a person who had been imprisoned together with Dr. J, and they turned out to be best friends. This also shows the capabilities of man and their limitless nature as well as unpredictability. Despite all the pain that Frankl had gone through which is completely unimaginable we find him in a position to forgive these people and sees good in them and disregards their past actions as well as their horrible reputation.

And since Hiroshima, We Know What is at stake

In this other statement, we all can relate to what happened in Hiroshima and know the impact of the events that took place. These are history scars that can never get erased from history and the things we wish to take back time and change them but this can hardly happen. In relation to logotherapy where the fear of something leads to that particular thing happening and from the statement, this seems to be applicable in an indirect manner see what is at stake in the Hiroshima incidences people fear the events and this results in several unrelated incidences such as poor international relations between different countries (Walker). Frankl from the book gives a good example of a person who is afraid of performing poorly in bed and in return he does perform poorly due to this fear hence knowing what is at stake happens to have the same magnitude to the people involved. The way around this is through the nature of accepting this situation and moving past it.

The different things that we people do we normally tend not to consider what is at stake and the minute this happens we realize the magnitude of our actions (Walker). Evaluation of our actions in respect to other people not only us individually is every important. What is at stake should in most cases dictate your actions and is the actions worth taking the chance. Hiroshima het the world so hard that the scar so far has not completely faded off and the chances of letting this happen is completely impossible.

Conclusion

Frankl's book covers a lot of information regarding the nature of humans, especially what we are and how we can shape our different circumstances. How we look at things as well as how we approach these issues. People have different theories that they work with. Both statements from the postscript clearly help in looking at things in different perspectives and the analysis helps in the statements help n the conceptualizing and analysis of some of the core events within the book. A man has the ability to endure anything depending on the mindset they have on. The predictability of humankind makes someone's life more interesting since due to this unpredictability nature. We are also in a position to shape our lives into anything we wish depending on the nature of one's take to life.

Work Cited

Walker, Lanier. "Mans Search for Meaning Logotherapy in a Nutshell: The Super-Meaning." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 18 Jun 2017. Web. 25 Nov 2017.