In Victor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” and Dr, Martin Luther King Jr,’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail“ the two come together to show brokenness and wholeness. wholeness and brokenness are two characteristics that are common in every novel now a day, wholeness is defined as something that completes a person, usually characters strive to become whole again after a struggle they endurei On the other hand there is brokenness, which is the part of the character that creates the conflict, and usually this pushes the character to fight all limits to reach their ultimate goal of becoming whole. In Jane Hirschfield’s poem ”In Praise of Coldness” she writes “Neither a person entirely broken nor one entirely whole can speak.”(Hirschfield, 18—19). Her words help capture the idea that no one is perfect and each and every one of us have to be a little broken and whole to find our place in life.
The emotional piece of a man finding a way through the struggles he endured during the holocaust only exemplifies how Victor Frankl was broken after first arriving, but then becomes whole once he learns to cope with the trauma that he lived through. “Therefore, it was necessary to face up to the full amount of suffering, trying to keep moments of weakness and furtive tears to a minimum. But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer” (Frankl, 47) Frankl explains that he must be strong because being weak will only cause him more pain and possibly lead him to death. While reading “A Man’s Search for Meaning”, Frankl kept pointing out that you had to keep a positive attitude or else you wont survive because positivity helps keep the mind off the horrific things people go through, which is the essence of brokennessi “Health, family, happiness, professional abilities, fortune, position in societyiall these were things that could be achieved again or restoredi.
After all, we still had all our bones intacti Whatever we had gone through could still be an asset to us in the future. And I quoted from Nietzsche: “Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich starken ” (That which does not kill me, makes me strongeri)” (Frankl, 89) Once Frankl got out of the concentration camp he then became grateful for life and went on to help others through psychology, which redefines wholeness. Frankl endured a lot in his lifetime, however at no single point was Frankl ever truly broken or whole because even when Frankl was broken he found a part inside of him that gave him motivation to keep fighting Martin Luther King Jr. shows that we must fight in order to achieve what we set out to accomplish, King brings together the essence of wholeness and brokenness by pointing out what he has endured to create a fighting motivation for the African American people.
127 our experts are availableright now
Arguably, a majority of King’s life could be considered a broken, however his life would have new meaning once he got sent to jail. He preached to the American people that they must fight for what they believe in and pointed out, what had been done to him was unjust and not right! “Was not Thomas Jefferson an extremist? — “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equalt” So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be Will we be extremists for hate, or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice, or will we be extremists for the cause ofjustice?” (King, 4) In the letter King expresses his anger over the unjust the African American population face, and when he is thrown in jail that would be considered the broken part of his life. “So we decided to go through a process of self-purification.
We started having workshops on nonviolence and repeatedly asked ourselves the questions, “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?” and ”Are you able to endure the ordeals ofjail?” (King, 2) Later in King’s life he becomes one of the most iconic and influential leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. His influences on the American people could be considered as his high point in life (or “wholeness”) because he finally reached his ultimate goal in creating a movement that would spark questions as to why blacks aren‘t equal, This would later lead to new laws, desegregation, and over all, equality. King’s presence not only created the momentum of the Civil Rights Movement but also defined modern day America, which now is completely equal for all races. In the end King was never truly completely broken or whole at any given time because if that were true he would have had no motivation to help start a movement that would change the history of The United States.
The idea of wholeness and brokenness is captured in “A Man‘s Search for Meaning” and King’s “Letter form Birmingham Jail” showing us that overcoming a struggle or weakness is key to living the good life Brokenness leads us to who we are because something that is broken will at one point become whole again! The good life is not fictional or imaginary, but whatever we find in ourselves that we consider the good life, The good life not only teaches us how to live the good life, but how to reexamine our lives so that we can reimagine the good life in an everyday sense. King overcomes his “brokenness” by persevering and creating a fighting passion in the African American population for something he does not believe is right, which ultimately leads him to his wholeness.
On the other hand there is Frankl, who is in a place where life is dreary and possibly short, so he must think positively to better his chance of survival. Frankl not only overcomes the brokenness by being trapped in the concentration camp, he encourages himself to fight on and later becomes a psychologist and helps other people, which would be considered his wholeness. The essence of brokenness and wholeness is captured because neither of Lhese two men are ever fully broken or whole because they have lived through so much that one cannot simply just forget their past. Accompanied with brokenness is wholeness (or vice-versa) because it gives motivation to overcome the brokenness and to find an equilibrium point in the middle, which would be considered living the good life
References
- Viktor Frankl on the Art of Presence, the Soul-Stretching Essentials of Suffering, and Our Search for Transcendence
- Letter from Birmingham Jail
- In Praise of Coldness by Jane Hirschfield
- A Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl – Google Books
- Searching for Meaning: A Neurocognitive Approach by Patricia J. R. MacKenzie
