Blue Book Exam for Wednesday, July 6
Analyze the manner in which the fable Death in Tehran explains the entire book Man's Search for Meaning. Your thesis should have 4 mapping components, and your essay must have 4 supporting body paragraphs.
Fourth Option
Defend, support, or complicate the argument that Groundhog Day character Phil Connors’ spiritual malaise and eventual spiritual transformation can be analyzed through the lens of the principles in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.
Thesis Sample:
Through the lens of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Groundhog Day's universal themes of damnation and salvation become crystal clear. We see that Phil Connors is without meaning a damned man doomed to live in an eternal loop of nothingness and despair. We see that without hope for a meaningful existence, Connors surrenders to his beastly impulses of cynicism and petulant childishness, resulting in his disconnection from himself and the human race. We see that Connors must be redeemed by love, one of the three ways humans find meaning, according to Frankl. Finally, we see that it is only the primary drive for meaning that, like the logotherapy used by Viktor Frankl, can provide the therapy and healing Connors' shrunken soul needs.
Essays
"Breakthrough to the True Self"
"Everything I Know About Life I Learned from Groundhog Day"
Second Option:
Defend, support, or complicate the argument that the determinism evident in the 1999 Alexander Payne film Election is a compelling refutation of Frankl's notion that we are free to find meaning as a cure for our despair and self-destruction.
Recommended Research Links:
Sample Thesis That Shows How Election is a Refutation of Man's Search for Meaning
The characters in Alexander Payne's masterpiece Election (1999) refute Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning in compelling ways. For one, the characters lack the self-awareness to make the kind of choices or show the type of "freedom" that Frankl says we must utilize to find meaning. For two, the characters' earnest attempts to find meaning and structure in their lives prove to backfire and send them down a rabbit hole of moral dissolution and self-destruction suggesting that our most zealous efforts for meaning are contaminated by the unsavory impulses of the unconscious. For three, Tracy Flick's "meaning" and structure proves to be no meaning at all but rather unbridled ambition. Fourth, the movie's symbolism argues for a world governed by determinism through the environment and hard-wiring rather than a world populated by people who can make legitimate choices. Fifth, the movie's very title Election shows the ambiguity of choice: We "elect" to do things while at the same time life elects to place people in their place in the world's soulless machine.
For paragraph 1, summarize Frankl's book.
For paragraph2, summarize the movie Election.
For paragraph 3, write a thesis that presents your argument about meaning as you pit the book against the movie.
Paragraphs 4-10 should support your thesis.
Paragraph 11 will be your conclusion, a dramatic restatement of your thesis.
Things to Consider:
The emptiness of the adults whose conventions lack power, meaning, and soul. They are the blind leading the blind.
Mr. M's swollen eye is like a metaphor of original sin, blindness, and crippling affliction. The closed eye also speaks to his lack of self-awareness.
Tracy Flick is a shark, an ambitious predator with no moral compass who believes, erroneously, that she has a moral compass.
School is a place of cycles, people coming in, people coming out. We also see a lot of garbage in the movie, garbage coming in, and garbage coming out.
The sprinklers seem like metaphors for a deity of Deism, the impersonal mechanized god who does not intervene in human affairs.
Resources:
You may use the short story, "Critical Thinking," I wrote about the conversation I had with a student on this subject.
First Option
Defend, support, or refute the argument that Man’s Search for Meaning gives us a cogent, appropriate and insightful analysis for evaluating Nikolai’s moral dissolution in the Chekhov short story “Gooseberries.”
Second Option:
Defend, support, or complicate the argument that the determinism evident in the 1999 Alexander Payne film Election is a compelling refutation of Frankl's notion that we are free to find meaning as a cure for our despair and self-destruction. Recommended Research Link for Alternative Option: http://sensesofcinema.com/2012/feature-articles/chance-and-choice-biology-and-theology-in-alexander-paynes-election/
Sample Thesis That Shows How Election is a Refutation of Man's Search for Meaning
The characters in Alexander Payne's masterpiece Election (1999) refute Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning in compelling ways. For one, the characters lack the self-awareness to make the kind of choices or show the type of "freedom" that Frankl says we must utilize to find meaning. For two, the characters' earnest attempts to find meaning and structure in their lives prove to backfire and send them down a rabbit hole of moral dissolution and self-destruction suggesting that our most zealous efforts for meaning are contaminated by the unsavory impulses of the unconscious. For three, Tracy Flick's "meaning" and structure proves to be no meaning at all but rather unbridled ambition. Fourth, the movie's symbolism argues for a world governed by determinism through the environment and hard-wiring rather than a world populated by people who can make legitimate choices. Fifth, the movie's very title Election shows the ambiguity of choice: We "elect" to do things while at the same time life elects to place people in their place in the world's soulless machine.
Resource:
You may use the short story, "Critical Thinking," I wrote about the conversation I had with a student on this subject.
Third Option
Defend, support, or complicate the argument that even though Frankl’s philosophy is informed by his religious faith, one need not be religious to embrace Frankl’s precepts and principles. You can concede that Frankl’s book is “religious” but not in the narrow sense of the word. Rather, it is universally religious. On the other hand, some will argue that the theistic religion that informs Frankl’s philosophy is too narrow to accommodate secular and atheist thinkers. Take a position and explain. You may want to consult Elizabeth Anderson’s “If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?”
Sample Thesis of Student Who Opposes Frankl on Grounds That Frankl Is Religious
Frankl believes in God (he is a theist), and the philosophy that informs his book Man's Search for Meaning is based on Frankl's theism. Take away religious faith and all the precepts of Frankl's book come crashing down like a deck of cards. A close look at the book from an atheist's point of view reveals that the book is full of faith-based aphorisms and homilies that cannot be believed unless one is religious. The notion of meaning is false since no one can prove there is any meaning at all. We have adapted to cooperate with one another and have evolved morality, but these developments do not point to any meaning or any God. Frankl's heroism is not the result of his choice to have the right attitude toward his suffering but rather the result of his hard-wiring and environment. Lots of decent people would not have performed so heroically in Frankl's circumstances, and they should not be ashamed if they are more selfish when faced with such excruciating circumstances. My third point is that if everyone were like Viktor Frankl, a goody two shoes, the world would be a boring place. Many of our most famous comedians who preach cynicism, hopelessness, misanthropy, and life's essential meaninglessness, provide us with therapeutic laughter precisely because they have never found "meaning" or the pious attitude toward life that Frankl would impose on the rest of us. Finally, since the "meaning" of one person with one religious faith collides with the "meaning" of a person who practices a different religious faith, we can conclude that "meaning" is an illusion based on a person's delusion belief in God. Looking at the evidence, we are forced to conclude that Man's Search for Meaning is simply a mouthpiece for religious dogma and does nothing to convince me or anyone that "meaning" exists.
Fourth Option
Defend, support, or complicate the argument that Groundhog Day character Phil Connors’ spiritual malaise and eventual spiritual transformation can be analyzed through the lens of the principles in Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.
Thesis Sample:
Through the lens of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Groundhog Day's universal themes of damnation and salvation become crystal clear. We see that Phil Connors is without meaning a damned man doomed to live in an eternal loop of nothingness and despair. We see that without hope for a meaningful existence, Connors surrenders to his beastly impulses of cynicism and petulant childishness, resulting in his disconnection from himself and the human race. We see that Connors must be redeemed by love, one of the three ways humans find meaning, according to Frankl. Finally, we see that it is only the primary drive for meaning that, like the logotherapy used by Viktor Frankl, can provide the therapy and healing Connors' shrunken soul needs.
Fifth Option:
Defend, refute, or complicate the argument that Man’s Search for Meaning is the greatest anti-self-help self-help book ever written.
Consider these distinguishing qualities of traditional self-help books:
- They deny suffering as the central feature of human existence
- They play into reader’s narcissistic fantasy of being special and at the center of the universe.
- They promise easy solutions based on gimmicks intended to look like “insights.”
- They promise easy solutions using common sense dressed up in jargon and pretentious language.
- They tend to condescend to the reader, treating him like a child. There is an infantile, dumbed-down quality to them.
- They make false promises about happiness and self-fulfillment.
- They make being a selfish self-centered lout acceptable and “noble.”
- They place selfish self-interest and self-indulgence over responsibility to oneself and others.
Your guidelines for your Final Research Paper are as follows:
This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.
You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.
You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.
At least one source must be from an ECC library database.
At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.
At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.
You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.
You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Your paper must be logically organized and focused.
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