If death is really true, based upon the animistic quality of our five physical senses, then how do we know that we are truly alive and breathing and not in a dream? It has been proposed that people who are aware of the existence of their surroundings mostly rely on their five senses, which may cause illusions. The ethereal yet grounded theory of existentialism provides the landscape for a more positively-identified pathway which reaches across the separation that exists among humans.
When thinking about the quote ‘existence precedes essence’, the concept lends room for credibility that Morrie was right in suggesting that the fundamental truth of human existence rests upon love. In Mitch Albom’s non-fictional piece, Tuesdays with Morrie, the professor, who recounted during the last elderly and dying days of his life, provides philosophical instructions as a curriculum in wisdom. Lessons for living, uncovered in conversations with Morrie, reflected his attitude as an offender who is against the social values of being selfish for material or financial gain only. Morrie’s awareness of human existence taking precedence over the everyday ignorance of love between others, which is the ultimate of what matters, can be summed up in at least one statement quote from the book, which is, “You see, you closed your eyes. That was the difference. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too.”(Albom, 61) Instead of depending on the five senses, Morrie relied completely on his pure feelings of trust and love with other people, which proved the existence of other unique individuals. By placing a loving responsibility on his shoulders to share his lifetime-gained pearls of wisdom with Albom, Morrie has contended with the very depths of his role and soul in the world in a willingness to share and love. This is being impressed upon our minds and hearts because existentialist patterns of reality demand people to love. As well as in Tuesdays with Morrie, the idea that love is the foundation of existentialism was clearly rendered from a different tone based from Morrie’s style, when perusing Franz Kafka’s work of fiction, Metamorphosis.
When Kafka’s protagonist, Gregor Samsa, awakened to find himself transformed into a grotesque insect as the book writes “He lays on his hard, armour-like back his many legs, miserably thin in comparison with his size otherwise, flickered helplessly before his eyes.”(Kafka, 29), he still thinks like a human and recoils with disgust upon discovering the replacement of his legs. As the nasty truth came to light in the fictional story, the role of Gregor is diminished as a human being because of his “helpless” legs. The profundity, in terms of existentialism in Kafka’s literary work, has constantly been reflected upon because existentially cornered notions force a person to deal with what really counts. Representing a small figure from the bourgeois class under the capitalist society, his existence as part of the family and society is denied, as Kafka epressed him into an animal, because the wild circumstances showed that Gregor Samsa would not be able to earn money for the family. What really matters is targeted in existentialism, as Kafka wrote “He thought back on his family with affection and love.” (Kafka, 71), is the pure love which influence and connect with the existence of an individual. The love for Gregor from the family was so weak that it needed to be bounded with money, which showed that the existence of Gregor was quite vague in his family. As well as an illusory of water when the person is walking at a hot desert, Gregor thinks that he is deeply loved and appreciated by his family. Gregor's latter desire to disappear is quite understandable given everything that's happened. The word "disappear" is even more absolute than death, which would at least leave a corpse. Same as the eventual disappearance of Gregor Samsa, the disappearance of Donnie Darko from the Donnie Darko film, directed by Richard Kelly, also expressed the idea that the foundation of existence comes from love.
The film, Donnie Darko, revolves around a young man’s premonition of his family’s death, of an airliner crashing into their residence. Meanwhile, plagued by visual appearances of an odd-looking demonic human with an insect mask that seems to be warning of death and doom, Donnie struggled to accept the fate given to him by refusing to die. Yet in the end, Donnie is forced – by circumstances – to decipher the true meaning of life. The death of his girlfriend Karen evoked his love for other people. Love became the major connection and proof of the existence among human beings. As Donnie gradually learned and accepted the meaning of love, he began to realize the existence of other people around him. Eventually, he chose to sacrifice himself to bring peace and existence to the people at the primary world. Love always has a great impact on other people. In other words, the relationship of humans are based on love, as evident in the spiritual and emotional aspects of the society. As written in a famous quotation, “No man is an island, entire of itself.” (Donne, 1624), it is inevitable for an individual to become emotionally-attached to another person in some way or another. There will be some people who might deny or reject the idea of them having feelings and emotions, may it be for a friend, a special someone, or even to a mother, but unconsciously, they are already in the act of being attached.
Looking back, I forementioned the word “sacrifice” in the previous paragraph. As in the story of Donnie, the term “sacrificial act” was put into focus. Immanuel Kant, one of the greatest and most substantial philosophers of all-time, viewed sacrifice in a high level of significance. According to an article, it is said that, “Kant is the first philosopher of self-sacrifice to advance this ethics as a matter of philosophic principle, explicit, self- conscious, uncompromised.” (The Cause of Hitler’s Germany), which definitely means that sacrifice is also an act that you do intentionally with the knowledge of the rewards and consequences that lie ahead. In Donnie’s case, he did a remarkable job of putting aside his desires and ambitions for the greater good of the people around him. The term “collateral damage” is often used in military and political issues. However, it can also be applied to almost every aspect of our life. This means that there will always be someone or something that should be sacrificed in order to produce a better product.
The value of sacrifice should then be equalized to the risks that an individual or a group needs to undertake for the betterment of the process. Those risks can be a desire, goal, dream, or even an intimate relationship with somebody. Actually, that is the true essence of sacrifice.
But then again, the primary issue is that how could we equate the significance of existentialism to the universal word, love? How could we relate the words sacrifice and existentialism? For an individual to be able to answer these questions, he should first adjust the lens of his focus. He should have the easy-to-say but hard-to-do capability of being an open-minded member of the society. Or in other words, he must try to change his view or perspective of the people that surrounds him. For an instance, we are living in a society that is characterized by an hierarchical structure of organization. An obvious positive effect of this is that there is an organized and collective goal for the that particular group or society. On the flipside of the coin, people are sometimes robbed of their individual freedom to pursue their own goals and plans. This argument becomes a setback because these people will then turn to greed, pride and jealousy as emotions that push them to do hideous or even evil things.
The notion here is that people should meditate on a realization that will address their existence in the society. If and when people selfishly think of their needs and wants as their basis of living, then the society as a whole will have lots of chaos and troubles. An individual who thinks for himself will cause envy and oblivion. Indifference will always be the opposite of love. People should not just have the mindset that they exist to benefit themselves. Otherwise, we will have a society that will be groping for more and be dismayed. An individual should think that he exists because he is a vital cog in the existence of the whole. And this will just be possible if there is, first and foremost, the word love.
Works Cited
Hatcher, Jeffrey, and Mitch Albom. Tuesdays with Morrie. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 2008. Print.
Donne, John, and Elizabeth Savage. Devotions upon Emergent Occassions. Salzburg: Institut Für Englische Sprache Und Literatur, Universität Salzburg, 1975. Print.
"Kant Is the First Philosopher for Self-sacrifice on Principle - The Cause of Hitler's Germany." The Cause of Hitlers Germany. 2015. Web. 19 May 2016.
