Compare and contrast Frankl’s ideas about happiness with those of Mustapha Mond and/or the Director in Brave New World, Ivan Ivanovitch or Nikolay from “Gooseberries,” and/or Byelikov from “The Man in a Case.” ***Note: you are NOT being asked to compare and contrast Frankl’s ideas with Huxley’s or Chekhov’s but with the characters created by these writers.***
In comparing and contrasting Frankl’s ideas with those of these fictional characters, you might consider these aspects:
• Mustapha Mond says liberty is nothing more than the freedom to be miserable. How might Frankl respond to this statement?
• Ivan Ivanovitch claims happy people are only happy because they maintain a certain distance from reality. What does Frankl say about how the prisoners at the concentration camps kept themselves sane in that reality? Did they ever need to create a distance between themselves and that reality? If so, how did they do this? What does Frankl say about the people who couldn’t face the reality of the camps at all?
• On many occasions, Byelikov in “The Man in a Case” is afraid to take any definite action at all or make any decisions because it “may lead to something.” What does Frankl say about decision-making in the concentration camps and how the prisoners felt about it? How does Frankl say he ultimately dealt with the challenge of decision-making in the camps?
• Ivan Ivanovitch claims that ultimately the only thing that matters in life is to do good and that personal happiness or pleasure is not so important. What does Frankl say about personal happiness?
• The Director in Brave New World says liking what you have is the key to happiness. What does Frankl say about what we “get” out of life?
Your paper should include:
• An introductory paragraph of at least four or five sentences that introduces the book(s) and/or stories you are writing about and gives the titles and authors of each. Remember that book titles should be underlined or italicized, and story titles should be in quotes. The last line of the introduction should be the thesis statement in which you identify three specific points of comparison and contrast between Frankl and any one, two, or three of these fictional characters.
• Distinct supporting sections with clear topic sentences which identify the one point of comparison and contrast you are going to discuss in that section. Use details and examples (including quotes) from the books and stories to illustrate the similarity or difference you are discussing and to support your point of view. Because you are quoting from several different works for this essay, your parenthetical citations need to identify the author as well as the page number. For example, after quoting from Man’s Search for Meaning, your parenthetical citation should look something like this: (Frankl 129). When quoting from one of the stories, you can just put the author’s name and the page number of the print-out from the internet.
• A concluding paragraph which restates your thesis and discusses the implications of what you’ve proven.
This essay should be around 3-4 pages long. An essay two preparation worksheet and an outline of this paper with a complete thesis statement, three topic sentences, and a restatement of your thesis.