What Does A Burden Too Heavy To Bear Mean

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Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning deals mainly with the author's experiences inside concentrations camps during the Holocaust. There, he examines the actions and decisions of the people surrounding him. Throughout the book, he explains how the behavior of both the Germans and Jews are connected to psychology. Moreover, he emphasizes that having a purpose or reason for living gives one the urge to continue one's life. Also, he states that everyone's life is important and each has a different destiny. He states that any situation can be interpreted in a positive manner. For this, he concludes that people are capable of overcoming trials that life may throw at them. While it is true when Frankl states that people need to live their life…show more content…
In Diane Sommerville's essay, “A Burden Too Heavy to Bear”, she talks about the traumatic events and suicide in soldiers and physicians during and after the war. She mentions that “during World War II thousands of recruits suffered 'fear reactions'...Confederate soldiers who committed suicide seem likely to have been experiencing similar 'fear reactions'...fear of dying, fear of killing, and fear of the unknown” (Sommerville 461-462). The war in itself is considered as a traumatic event for many, and the anxiety that Sommerville mentions is a factor for those soldiers to kill themselves instead of facing their future. Somehow, by killing themselves, they refuse to acknowledge what the future offers. It is almost as if the “fear reactions” has also triggered a loss of hope and has been a means of escape because the soldiers would rather die themselves rather than brutally die in the hands of the enemies; they would rather not take the lives of others that may defy their morals; and they would rather refuse to suffer what the “unknown” may offer. (Sommerville 461-462). But one can also see that those actions are opposite of a soldier with courage and optimism may do because if one dies in the hands of

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