One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich/Man's Search for Meaning by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn/Viktor Frankl

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is set in a labor camp in Stalin's Russia. It demarcated Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as a spokesperson for the experiences of suffering. He offers a message of hope implicitly through the character of Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, a prisoner. Solzhenitsyn proclaims that the effects of suffering need not languish vainly in the human soul. Through endurance under such conditions, mere survival becomes an act of refusal and resistance. In this manmade hell, Shukhov retains his moral dignity. He demonstrates he is a free man, striking a balance between the aggressive necessity to survive and compromise with the need to live.

Man’s Search for Meaning focuses on Viktor Frankl’s experiences both during and after living in concentration camps. The first part of the book describes Frankl's survival in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. The second part of the book examines Frankl’s life philosophy and the psychology that he developed based on his experiences. Through his writings and his life’s work, Frankl emphasizes the endurance of humanity and the dignity of the human spirit, even in the face of circumstances that were sick and inhumane.

About the Series:

Novel/Drama curriculum units contain complete lesson plans with preliminary and follow-up work, teacher notes with plot summary, background, and rationale, ready-to-use worksheets, and suggested answers for student questions. These study guides encourage the development of thinking, reading, speaking, research, and writing skills as well as critical thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.