The assignment involves selecting a particular theme and exploring how it comes up in the book. You may focus on one of the themes in the following list, or come up with one of your own. Possible themes, and some suggested accompanying questions, are:
• Dehumanization: how does it happen? how is it dealt with or mitigated against? what does it suggest about what being human is about? about good and evil?
• Suffering: what can we learn from it? what is meant by “being worthy of one’s suffering”? are there limits to suffering?
• Fate: what is it? can it be trusted? what is Frankl’s attitude towards it?
• Psychological effects of camp life: what survival strategies helped? what got most in the way of psychological well-being? are there worse things than death?
• Meaning of Life: what does Frankl think this is? is it helpful to dwell on this question? what might be the “meaning” of the Holocaust?
