(no subject)
Alexandra Borzo
AP English Literature
Florian, period 1
due: January 4th, 2006
The Necessity and Inevitability of Suffering
“Almost from the first, while he read the letter, Raskolinkov’s face was wet with tears; but when he finished it, his face was pale and distorted and a bitter, wrathful and malignant smile was on his lips” (pgs. 41-42, Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment).
_____The absolute inevitability of human suffering has never lessened its pain in the least. We suffer when we are in physical pain, and we suffer when we lose what we love. We suffer when we ache with sorrow, and we suffer when we’re scalded by rage. Pain is obvious wherever we look, and life itself cannot conclude without an immeasurable amount of loss and grief. To suffer is to feel: However, it cannot be properly explained using such simplified emotional elucidations. Emotion itself is such a complicated matter; we need to examine its factors one by one. Suffering is fundamentally necessary in at least three very important ways. First of all, to endure such agonies is required in order to keep all other emotions in perspective. Emotions are entirely relative-you cannot feel euphoric without in turn feeling miserable. Second of all, man’s brain holds one essential similarity to all other animals’: The chemical feedback it distributes to sustain a balanced hormonal level. What muses it provides, for example, are later counter acted by an equal level of hopelessness. Most importantly, in order to learn some of life’s most valuable lessons, we often need to suffer first. Whether it be for making a mistake and thus suffering the consequences, or if through suffering you realize something that you didn’t understand before, this condition of sorrow is essential. These aspects of suffering’s necessity are continually explored, and the inevitability of distress has only been further proven as mankind has matured.
_____The first, most logical necessity of sorrow is simply maintaining perspective. This fundamental need has been personified and poeticized since the dawn of man. One of the most memorable examples of this is the ancient idea of yin-yang, or the need to balance out good and bad. This tenet has been explored on almost every level: spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and even political! “The scene of suffering is a scene of joy when suffering is past; and the silent reminiscence of hardships departed, is sweeter than the presence of delight itself” (Herman Melville, The Writings of Herman Melville). In every comprehensible fashion, contradictory forces are required to expose every energy for what it is. How can you understand admiration and love without having also felt revulsion and hate? Sometimes, however, complimentary forces are needed instead. If a man commits an indulgent crime, for example, he must then be punished justly. When this concept has come into question in society, the more accurate question is often “What is ‘just’ punishment?” But that is not the point made here: I only intend to prove the necessity for a proportionate reprimand. Furthermore, “Only those who have endured the greatest suffering can become the greatest people” (Chinese proverb). Without the appreciation of life’s miseries (whether inflicted by one’s own mistakes or by life’s inevitable mis-dealings), glory would be incomprehensible, and lessons would never be learned without having seen life’s darker side. Some people, however, argue that even with due punishment, man still refuses to refine his ways. It is arguable still that such repent is sure to ensue, and that the wrong-doer will suffer if he is truly “sorry for his victim; pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have the greatest sadness on earth” (pg. 265, Crime and Punishment). Life holds no guarantees; not every time a wrong-doer is punished will he learn any lesson from it. But if the wrong-doer holds any intelligent realization of what he’s done, then he will suffer. His perspective will thus become even more intellectual when he understands further the advantages to leading a corrected life. These considerations only lead one to realize that experiencing sorrow is truly necessary to value life’s raptures. And without suffering (and realizing what decisions might have lead you to suffer so), seldom would we truly understand the impact of any of our wrong doings.
_____The second, less understood level of suffering’s importance is that of our body’s chemical needs. “Life involves suffering and transitoriness, it’s just the way it is. No person can choose his age or the condition of his time. The past’s inevitably robs the present of much joy and much mystery” (Henry A. Kissinger, The Meaning of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toynbee and Kant). But how can one validate this certainty? Hemisphericity is a concept that has been explored more and more in the last ten or twenty years. While physically it’s the principle of exercising both sides of the brain (the logical left and the more creative right), spiritually and philosophically it has been explored as the hormonal balancing act in the brain’s delicate Limbic System. The Limbic system is the area of the brain that regulates activities such as emotions, physical and sexual drives, and the body’s stress response (http://dictionary.com). It is a biological fact that the small hypothalamus (located inside the Limbic System), which controls the body’s hormonal releases, is constantly working to balance emotions out evenly. Even the effect alcohol has on our body is supposedly balanced throughout the experience of intoxication. While the favored effect of alcohol is the notorious feeling of exhilaration that it provides, it then imparts an equal consequence of gloom at it’s “downfall”. “There is a will to suffering at the foundation of all organic life, in contradiction to every moment of happiness” (Friedrich Nietzsche, pg. 317, Kritisch Studienausgabe, vol. 10). Surely, this major function of our brain takes the need for suffering to an even greater level. “Don’t look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you’ll know you’re dead” (Tennessee Williams, quoted in The Observer [London, Jan. 26, 1958]).
_____The more difficult part to this exploration of unhappiness is the question of how to handle it. Man is generally equally likely to take one of three paths: Either they dwell miserably on their sorrows, or they look over and beyond them to the point that their feelings build up uncontrollably, or they take the necessary steps to identifying their problems and fixing them. While an increasing number of people are choosing the lifelong depression that comes with the first option, the second is also getting more popular. They are truly the simpler answers. The frustration of such distressful tragedies is often times enough to rob someone entirely of their motivation-hence the attractiveness of choosing to dwell. And optimism seems so difficult to achieve anymore, that wanting to just ignore one’s own miseries (without realizing the damage that letting them build will do) seems like the next best thing. The most valuable attitude, obviously, is wanting to fix or help whatever situation is providing such despair. “Whoever possesses the will to cure suffering within himself has a different attitude toward cruelty: he does not regard it as inherently harmful and bad” (Friedrich Nietzsche, pg. 194, Kritisch Studienausgabe, vol. 10). Living through times of pain is perhaps one of the most thorough means for developing a healthy perspective on life. You learn to appreciate so much more if you are forced to reevaluate life again and again, when you suffer the loss of all that matters to you. In the absence of luxuries, and even in the absence of absolute necessities, you are forced to search for hope, and you begin to reason through your pain. The benefits you reap when you find that hope is the appreciative perspective of a much wiser man. And once you learn to appreciate so much more, life blossoms into a magnificent thing:
“He thought of her. He remembered how continually he had tormented her and wounded her heart…but these recollections scarcely troubled him now; he knew with what infinite love he would now repay all her sufferings. And what were all, all the agonies of the past!...But he could not think for long together of anything that evening, and he could not have analysed anything consciously; he was simply feeling. Life had stepped into the place of theory and something quite different would work itself out in his mind” (pgs. 541-542, Crime and Punishment).
The character Raskolinkov in Crime and Punishment undergoes a major metamorphosis in the famous novel. He undergoes a colossal change in perspective: an epiphany that only the most sorrowful men undertake, due to a mysterious glimpse of hope lingering in their hearts. This transformation is a prime example of how life altering such an experience can be…All due to an unutterable amount of suffering.
_____Sorrow is a painfully un-welcomed human condition. That cannot, however, counteract its necessity. In order to maintain emotional perspective, balance the body’s hormonal and chemical levels, and learn some of life’s most difficult lessons, man will continue to endure painful periods of suffering. We can even become all the better because of it. No one wants to be an advocate of pain or misery, but in the moments of life’s “highs,” it all seems worth it. Existence is entirely relative, and so is every faction in the lives we lead. Emotion is no different: “As absolute distaste reveals absolute beauty, so complete sorrow reveals complete bliss” (Chinese proverb).
You know, I think I get more and more longwinded every day. =P I really enjoyed writing that paper, though...And I especially liked having it done with, having started it about 12 hours before it was due. Hehe...
So how was everyone's break? I'm getting more and more impatient for Sunday!...But enjoyign two lazy weeks still rocked pretty hard.