The essay for this lesson is required to be 1,000-1,500-words and clearly demonstrate your understanding of the prompt. Essays should be 5 or more paragraphs with a clear introduction, thesis statement and conclusion, written in APA format (APAstyle.org).
You may select from one of the following prompts:
A characteristic of existentialist writing, whether produced by philosophers like Sartre, Camus, and Schopenhauer, or novelists like Franz Kafka or Arthur Miller, is a challenge to the longstanding presumption that life is imbued with meaning. Drawing your inspiration from the writers mentioned, or those similar to them, provide examples of existentialist writings. Analyze what the writings say about meaninglessness, then compare and contrast what you believe, in response to these writings, about the issue of whether life is meaningful.
Present the views of a philosopher or other thinker who challenges the claim that life is meaningful or has a meaning. Based on your readings for this lesson, can you respond to this challenge? If you can, state that response. If you can’t, appraise some attempt to defend the meaning of life evaluating its failure to meet the challenge.
In the last analysis at the end of the day, does it matter whether life is meaningful or has no meaning? Explore this question with regard to the readings for this lesson, some of which suggest that it does not. If you think it does matter, state why by reference to the readings and media we have studied in this lesson. If not, cite from your readings and films to argue that it does not.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth says that “Life’s a poor player, who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Do you agree or disagree? Justify your answer by reference to the materials we have studied in this lesson.
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