Portfolio essay Intro.

What is the purpose of life? What is the reason for our suffering, success, ingenuity? It’s quite the question to be asked, but there is a simple answer. If death its self is fear and theory than the purpose of life is that which we give it. This is the gift which separates a life where one  is living from a life where one is surviving. In the 20th century, in the novels, Slaughter House 5 and The Jungle, we see how those living a life of surviving implement a chain of human despair and suffering. Both authors exemplify the consequences of choices made in confinement and utter fear. Although the philosophies of Sartre and Kierkegaard say that in the life of surviving or confinement you can find happiness and reason. Consequences of these ideas and the ideas of Camus have unarguably made their faults quite obvious. In confinement and despair people become narcissists and tyrannical. Greed surpasses values and people become self absorbed in the communities they are in. Everyday people are labeled charlatans to the confined ideas of religion, government, standards. Even as I write this paper I’m imposed to write an extraneous essay to avoid despair myself. To lay faith in anything but yourself is simply naive for it is only your mistakes and successes that truly define what you know. It was said, “Her life improved dramatically when she decided to break the rules and find beauty where she had been told there was none” (Unknown). If we are to truly contain a purpose and a reason for our existence than it is moronic to mistake rules and standards for actuality, when they are simply indications that those controlling your future are claiming you are an impostor to your own beliefs. I will choose naively to live my life, but in respect to those around me, with tolerance, acceptance, flexibility, and staying true to myself. For in choosing to live your life you accept who you are and learn from your mistakes. In doing so you will become respectful to those around you; you will become humble and loving to your family and friends and accepting of peoples differences. However, the imagery the novels and philosophies expose us to seem to imply that within confinement there is happiness and freedom. Though confinement is simply a way of limiting your possibilities. No man should limit the possibilities of another.