Ibrahim 1 Christin Ibrahim Ms.

Beall English 4 Honors 5 December 2012 Nothing Without The Whole Many believe that an individuals life has value. Their idea of value may differ, however; they all give a form of worth to each existence. Some see it as suffering in the hope to be awaited by death like in Shakespeares Hamlet while other like Lance Armstrong that see suffering as a way to grow as a person and thus give meaning to his life. Lastly, there is the existentialists, whom believe that life is meaningless and everything that comes with it, like Meursault in The Stranger, by Albert Camus. I am left to think that an individuals life is empty and meaningless until they gains value by selflessly and full heartedly dedicating to bringing happiness and comfort to those around them. As those lives around an individual become more fulfilled, so does the individual. The suffering in life is meaningful if and only if is to serve others who are close to us. Hamlet starts his soliloquy by pondering To be, or not to be that is the question, (Shakespeare III .i.1). His life is turned upside down when he is faced with his fathers ghost that alters his way of seeing the world and in return the way he values life. He continues to say that we go through life to only suffer and in the end we die. With that logic, he questions if it would make a difference if he takes his own life. His contemplation is caused by whether he should live and carry out his fathers revenge or die and end is suffering. We know that he does end up

Ibrahim 2 killing his uncle and avenging his father. That in the end brought no true meaning to Hamlets life for two main reasons. First he was not bringing happiness to those around him. In fact he brought more death by the committing the murder. Moreover he did it to help a figment of his father, which is irrational since they are no longer living. His vendetta was selfish and was skewed towards to not finding meaning and in return made him lonelier. Second, his alternative choice was suicide. That would have been also selfish and would have brought his mother suffering. His emotions that came with his reality brought him to lose meaning and thus his death was near and inevitable since he brought no contribution to those around him; Death takes another meaningless soul. While Armstrong is going through his chemotherapy, he finds a way to go through the suffering that comes with the illness. He declares that The truth is that cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me, (Armstrong 5). The cancer itself was not that gave him fulfillment. It was the support he got from those around him. He undermines the value in those who helped him and over exaggerates the power of will. He was not alone in the process. He recognizes that without the help of the nurses that worked rigorously to help their patients, he would not have been able to make it. However, it was not the focus of his argument. His life was gratifying because of those around him, not because he was happy or because he found a spiritual calling. It all dwindles down to the support you find in people around you. His life in essence is emptiness. I saw that because he seems to be looking for meaning in suffering. He seems to be looking for a meaning in overcoming his illness. And he says he does by beating the cancer. However in the grand schemes of things, if the cancer doesnt kill him, something else will. His pursuit in giving his battle with cancer credit for his value of life is futile. He does not use experience to help other cancer patients with the struggles. Instead he writes a book to promote himself. No one writes a

Ibrahim 3 book just to help others read about something that may guide them through hardship and lead them to have meaning in their life. The underlining truth is that he was doing it to get money. Therefore, I see his life as empty and does not contribute anything more than entertainment. On the bright side, I did find some value from reading his excerpt when he talked about the nurses that work all night. I find that their work and dedication to their job exemplifies an existence that has found an essence. Looking at those extreme cases of those who have no meaning, I find them to have extreme ends. In The Stranger, by Albert Camus, he depicts a peculiar character named Meursault. As he lies awake before his execution, he thinks to himself and proclaims I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that Im been happy, and I was happy still, (Camus 154). He compares himself to the benign indifference of the universe. He believes that his life meant nothing. He had no deep connections with any particular person; he just went with the motions. To him, that way he was living brought him happiness. However, it did not bring value to his existence. One can argue that he brought Marie happiness and did help Raymond by writing the letter. Nevertheless, he was not doing it out of selflessness. In the end, his empty and meaningless presence made him a stranger to his society and as a result they executed him. Rationally it makes sense. The essence of life comes from the contribution that we bring to our community thus if that notion is applied to Meursaults case, his life should be taken away from him. Whether one believes that value comes from happiness or a more spiritual experience, the innate answer is obvious in how we live and thrive as humans. We live in communities because we need the support. Parents live their whole life in dedication to the growth and happiness of

Ibrahim 4 their childrens. Teachers work more than they are required to help their students in order for them to have a successful future. Police officers and firemen risk their lives for the good of the community. That is because we want to give meaning to our life. Even small acts of giving, like holding the door for someone, contribute to the community. Once we see ourselves more than the self and put others before ourselves, the individual develops an essence. Only then can someone truly say that their life has any meaning. It might not be a grand way of valuing life but it serves to keep the community whole and our species from destroying itself from its core.

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Works Cited Armstrong, Lance, with Sally Jeenkens, Excerpt from Its not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. New York: Putnam, 2005.1-5. Camus, Albert, The Stranger. New York: Random House, 1946. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Act III, Sc. I, Hamlets To be, or not to be Soliloquy