Common Life Lessons from the book- Man's Search for Meaning and other movies

The character Andy Dufresne inspired millions of viewers with how one can embrace any difficulty in life by believing in themselves and the power of hope. What I observed in the movie The Shawshank Redemption and the book Man's Search for Meaning is that both portray how a person's response to difficulty makes all the difference. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Hope

Movies like The Shawshank Redemption makes people believe that when things are not going the way you want them to, you have to hope for better things. When everything seems out of your control, the only thing which can help you survive is hope.

Why do people go to the gym when they won't see the results right now? Because they hope they will become much more physically stronger not in a day but they know they will

When things are not going how you want them to go, what do you do? You hope that good things will happen to you.

Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

I think that if Andy Dufresne had lost hope in prison, his story would have taken a much darker turn just like Brooks. Instead of planning his escape he would have focused on all the difficult moments life brings to him and would have become broke. Andy might have given up on his fight to be free, making the story a tale of defeat rather than of redemption.

Andy chose to believe in hope. He never let his environment control his life. Without hope he won't be able to survive in prison. Hope is able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.

"There are places in the world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... That they can't get to, that they can't touch. It's yours... HOPE." These words influenced Red, his inmate, who once told Andy that hope is a dangerous thing. 

Viktor Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning book, also highlighted how this one single thing can change a person's life. The prisoner who had lost faith in the future—his future—was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and become a subject to mental and physical decay. Viktor Frankl also believed that hope and faith in the future are crucial for survival especially in extreme situations like a concentration camp.

One of my favourite paragraphs from the book-

"Those who know how close the connection is between the state of mind of a man—his courage and hope, or lack of them—and the state of immunity of his body will understand that the sudden loss of hope and courage can have a deadly effect."

"Any attempt to restore a man's inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal. Nietzche's words, "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,"

"The typical reply with which such a man rejected all encouraging arguments was,, "I have nothing to expect from life any more." What sort of answer one can give to that?"

"What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."

Courage 

"If you're brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting, and set out on a truth-seeking journey, and if you're truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared—most of all—to face and forgive some very difficult realities about yourself, then truth will not be withheld from you."- Eat Pray Love Movie. 

The other common thing I saw in the Man's Search for Meaning and this movie is that the courage to seek truth, the courage to fight for what you want and the courage to escape the prison made all the difference in the story. 

Just as the quote from Eat Pray Love suggests, Andy leaves behind everything familiar (his old life) and embarks on a difficult journey. Would Andy have been able to get out of prison if he had held on to his emotions for his wife and never had the courage to accept the present and change his future? Andy's life was about facing painful truths about his own life, including the injustices he suffers. He showed how important it is to have the courage to escape the prison and the courage to face the realities, but this doesn't mean to let it destroy your life. Andy faced the present but hoped for the better. 

Frankl also argues that if one is "brave enough" to seek meaning, even in the most horrific circumstances like a concentration camp, and if one treats each experience as a lesson or clue, then they can find purpose and strength to endure. 

Whether in a prison, a concentration camp, or a personal crisis, the courage to continue the quest is essential. After all, "Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation."

Action

"There is a wonderful old Italian joke about a poor man who goes to church every day, and prays before the statue of a great saint, begging: “Dear saint, please, please, please let me win the lottery.” Finally, the exasperated statue comes to life, looks down at the begging man and says: “My son, please, please, please buy a ticket.” - Eat Pray Love

Hope is a good thing. Of course, but you have to take action towards your desires.

In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne doesn't just hope for freedom, he plans and works towards it over the course of 19 years. He takes tangible steps, like chiseling through the wall with a small rock hammer and laundering money for the warden to build leverage, that eventually lead to his escape. Andy understands that simply wishing for freedom isn’t enough, he must take bold actions to make his dream a reality.

As described by Viktor Frankl in his book that, in the concentration camps, those who survived often did so by finding a reason to keep going, whether it was the hope of reuniting with loved ones or the desire to complete unfinished work. Frankl himself maintained his will to live by focusing on his goal of surviving to write his book. Frankl’s message is that to find meaning, one must actively engage with life, even in the darkest of times. 

In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy taught us that when life throws difficulties your way, you’ve got to yell, "Bring it on." His actions and perseverance helped him escape the prison in 19 years. "Andy Dufresne, the man who crawled through 500 yards of shit and came out clean the other end.” — Red. 

How he created a 500 yard long tunnel with a small rock hammer is still mesmerizing. Get busy living, or get busy dying. 

Andy’s ability to find joy in small victories, like helping fellow inmates and creating a library, shows that happiness often results from purposeful actions and positive choices, even in challenging environments.