Arguments from life and literature on the topic “What is the meaning of life?”

Arguments

Each person understands the meaning of life in his own way.
The meaning of life for many people is love.
The meaning of life may lie in sincere service to people.
Many people see the meaning of life in self-development.
The meaning of life for many women is motherhood.
The meaning of life for greedy, mercantile people is material values.
There are people who see the meaning of life in unity with nature.
Understanding the meaning of life does not come immediately.
A person has to spend time searching for the meaning of life.

Epithet for the word meaning

Sound, human, every, magical, hidden, underlying, true, original, deep, ordinary, secret, special, spiritual, definite, concluded, sacred, general, such, new, different, mysterious, certain, different, real, literal, double, supreme, deep, terrible, symbolic, high, main, sinister, physical, unique, different, direct, genuine, large, genuine, practical, intimate, dumb, original, wide, known, understandable, clear, concrete, figurative, basic, political, concrete, mystical, hidden, own, terrible, complete, exact, second, real, internal, important, simple, philosophical, great, artistic, ideological, abstract, doubtful, elementary, foggy, disguised, moral,

Epithets for the word life

New, personal, own, family, lonely, intimate, precious, urban, human, long, short-lived, cheerful, difficult, quiet, grey, boring, unbearable, happy, calm, dignified, private, peaceful, everyday, stormy, heavy, marital, peaceful, military, classroom, school, secular, real, afterlife, literary, closed, historical, unbearable, field, double, student, ebullient, capital, local, provincial, domestic political, resort, prosperous, pre-war, pious, wandering, trench, front-line, monastic, extraterrestrial, sinful, cheerful, behind-the-scenes, labor, toil, miserable, pitiful, unsettled, nervous, awkward, wise, legendary, joyful, meaningful, wonderful, broad, blissful, carefree, joyless, fierce (colloquially. ), wandering, half-starved, hectic (colloquial), festive, ascetic, faceless, bourgeois, colorless, boring, careless, drowsy, parasitic.

Arguments from literature

F. M. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment.” As we said above, people understand the meaning of life differently and this understanding depends on the internal content of the individual. A sincere, merciful person will never chase material values; the meaning of life for him will be helping people or society, serving them. Sonya Marmeladova - the heroine of the novel “Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky is known to many readers as a girl who is outwardly fragile, weak, defenseless, with a small, child-like face, and of short stature. But this weak girl contains enormous inner strength, boundless kindness and mercy. Sonya is one of the few who cannot imagine her life without helping her neighbors, who does not know how to live only for herself, or think about her desires. The fire of love for people burns in her heart. When her father lost his job due to drunkenness and the family began to be in need, Sonya, forgetting about herself, her pride and a happy future, rushed to help her family. She had to endure a lot of humiliation and suffering, but for the sake of her father, stepmother and her children, she steadfastly endured all the hardships. Having met Rodion Raskolnikov and learned his life story, the girl helps him too. With conversations about God, about the soul and faith, she supported him, eased his suffering and torment of conscience. Sonya directs him to the right path and shows him a way out of this situation. It is she, Sonechka Marmeladova, who advises the hero to repent of the crime committed and ask for forgiveness from the people at the crossroads. Thanks to the heroine, Raskolnikov gets rid of painful pangs of conscience. After his trial, Sonya, left without relatives, travels with Raskolnikov to Siberia to be close to him, help him, and support him. Her kindness, ability to sympathize, empathize, and lend a shoulder to those in need do not allow her to fill life with any other meaning other than serving people, relatives and loved ones.
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin "Lord Golovlevs". Heroes M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin are special heroes. Each of them has their own character, their own goals in life and priorities. Arina Petrovna Golovleva is the main character of the novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. She, undoubtedly, belongs to that category of people who are not able to devote themselves and their lives to other people, even those closest and dearest. Arina Petrovna was a powerful woman, she held the entire household in her hands, not trusting this matter to her “dumb husband”, with whom she lived for forty years in an unhappy marriage. She despised her husband Vladimir Mikhailovich Golovlev, considered her children a burden, and called her granddaughters, Anninka and Lyubinka, who were left orphans after the death of their mother, puppies. And although she raises the girls and is their guardian, she does not love them, and in any case she reproaches them for hanging like a stone around her neck. The meaning of life for Mrs. Golovleva lies in wealth and unlimited power. She demands complete obedience even from her adult children. Every step and action you take must be checked against her. The heroine devotes her entire life to accumulating and increasing wealth. She fanatically pursued the acquisition of goods. Her cellars and barns are filled with food and other riches, sometimes spoiled, since the housewife did not touch fresh supplies of food until the old ones ran out. She lived modestly, keeping her entire family from hand to mouth in order to save a penny. Over forty years of marriage, Mrs. Golovleva increased her fortune several times. If at the very beginning of their married life the couple had only one hundred and fifty serfs, then during the marriage there were four thousand. But Arina Petrovna did not want to stop there, she wanted more and more. But, probably, she never once asked herself questions about why she needed all this and whether she was doing the right thing. Neither money nor wealth brought her happiness; she dies alone, loved by no one and needed by no one.
A.S. Pushkin "Boris Godunov". Each person looks at the world in his own way and sets goals and objectives that are clear to him alone. In the tragedy of A.S. Pushkin's "Boris Godunov" one of the main characters is the chronicler Pimen, who devoted his life to an important and necessary cause, "a gift bequeathed by God." In the work we see him as a monk of the Chudov Monastery in Moscow, a meek and humble elder, whom, in his opinion, God awarded with a happy gift: he taught him to understand what was written and write himself, gave him a good memory and a long life. The author endows him with the features of Russian chroniclers. Pimen has a bright creative talent, knows how to reason objectively and soberly and draw the right conclusions. The chronicler is deeply concerned about the fate of the Russian people. In the past, he witnessed events at the royal court, participated in military affairs, and managed to enjoy the joys of worldly life. He managed to see a lot and came to monasticism already in adulthood, when he realized all the vanity and worthlessness of his life. The story about the events witnessed by the hero falls on paper. In a cramped cell, he works on a chronicle, a kind of message to future descendants, trying to reflect the events of the past truthfully and completely. This work is the meaning of life for him. For Pimen, chronicle writing is not only his favorite activity, which he does day and night, but also a high civic duty. In the coming to power of Boris Godunov through the murder of the real heir, he sees a huge evil that will not bring any benefit either to the regicide or to the Russian people who committed such a sin. He condemns Godunov, who crossed the will of God, and sincerely grieves for the innocently murdered Tsarevich Dmitry, who became the victim of an insidious man. The chronicler with all his heart wishes that new generations would not make mistakes, therefore, feeling that his strength is running out and the time will soon come to leave this world, he is in a hurry to complete his work, which has become the work and meaning of his life.
I.A. Bunin "Grammar of Love". Many literary heroes find the meaning of life in great, sincere and pure love. This magical feeling helps them not only live, but also make important discoveries for themselves. Great writers and poets, who probably knew more about love than ordinary people, wrote about this more than once. Story by I.A. Bunin's "Grammar of Love" is not just a story about the boundless, all-consuming feeling of the landowner Khvoshchinsky for the maid Lushka, but also a kind of hymn to swan fidelity, a story about high, tragic, tender love. The young man seemed to have everything he needed to be happy, but She appeared, a simple maid, and everything in the master’s life changed. The lovers could not be together, but after her death, for the hero who loved with all his soul, his whole life was concentrated in the small room in which his beloved used to live, and which has now become his cell, his Universe. There, in a small world, the master studied the grammar of love, its secrets and riddles from a small book, which became a real prayer book for the hero. During the day he read “The Grammar of Love, or the Art of Loving and Being Mutually Loved,” and at night he kept it under his pillow. Over the decades, the pages have become frayed, but still retain the notes made by the hero’s hand, and the quatrains written by Khvoshchinsky, probably before his death. In it, he seems to give an order to his descendants to live in love, to tell their children and grandchildren about it, because love is a truly great feeling that, once it has captured a person’s heart, remains in it forever. The hero lived his life, renouncing the world and its vanity, cherishing in his soul the memories of his beloved. The writer claims that even death cannot kill love, stop the attraction of the soul. For love there are no boundaries or partings, but, unfortunately, this feeling is fleeting and elusive. Happy are those who understand its value and fill their lives with it.
N.V. Gogol "Taras Bulba". Some works of art by Russian classics confirm that the meaning of life can lie in serving the Fatherland, in protecting one’s native land from enemies. Historical story “Taras Bulba” by N.V. Gogol resurrects the events of the 16th-17th centuries and reproduces the atmosphere of the Zaporozhye Sich. The main character of the story is the glorious Cossack Taras Bulba, the living embodiment of the people's character. The meaning of his life is to protect his native land from the Polish lords, for whom the lands of the Cossacks were a tasty morsel that they tried to snatch from the hands of the real owners. Taras Bulba fiercely hates his enemies and takes revenge for all the oppressed. His image seems to have been copied by the author from epic heroes, defenders of the Russian land. The hero is a true patriot, whose soul burns for his native land, for the fate and future of the Cossacks, so he leaves his home for a long time, his wife, dried up and aged ahead of time from grief and suffering, and leaves for the Zaporozhye Sich, where the Cossacks settled. Among them, the hero was known as a wise and brave commander who adhered to Cossack comradeship and was faithful to national customs. He also wants to involve his sons, Ostap and Andriy, in the common cause, so immediately after finishing the training course he brings them to the Sich and initiates them into its laws and traditions. As a father, he wants to be proud of his sons, he wants them, like him, to see the meaning of their lives in the struggle for a just cause, for the freedom and happiness of their people. When he sees what Ostap and Andriy are like in battle, he rejoices that he was able to raise worthy defenders who are not afraid of the enemy’s saber, will not hide behind the backs of others, but behave boldly and courageously in battle with the enemy. His father’s heart was bitter and ashamed when one of his sons, for the sake of love, betrayed his comrades, his native land and went over to the enemy’s camp, he could not forgive his son for such a choice, therefore, without flinching, he killed Andriy with the words that he gave birth to him, he will kill.
ON THE. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” An interesting story is the life of Grisha Dobrosklonov, told by the poet N.A. Nekrasov in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” The son of a simple sexton, who was poorer than the poorest peasant, he early experienced poverty, need, hunger and cold. The boy was left early without his mother's affection and care, and his father, himself always hungry, although he boasted about his heirs, still often forgot about his sons, Grisha and Savva, so the brothers were fed by peasants, whom they paid with feasible work. Grisha was a smart young man, he studied at the seminary, where he also had to endure hard times: he had to starve and freeze, live in harsh conditions. Observant and compassionate since childhood, he sees how difficult life is for ordinary peasants. He thinks a lot about their lives and about his own destiny and dreams that times will quickly come when all the common people will live well and freely. The young man admits that he does not need either gold or silver, he asks God for only one thing, so that all the Vakhlachina, who once fed and watered him, should live freely and cheerfully. He is ready to give his life for a bright and happy future for the peasants. Grisha Dobrosklonov goes into the fields and meadows to think in the silence of nature about how to lead the people out of eternal slavery, hopeless need and joyless life. There, in the lap of nature, he composes songs, which he then sings to his fellow villagers. From an early age, he heard from them motives filled with suffering, tears and unbearable torment, so he strives for his optimistic songs to displace “Hungry” from their memory, lift the spirit of the peasants, and give them strength to fight for their rights. Grisha is ready to lead the people, he is not afraid of either exile or hard labor. It is in this that he sees the meaning of his life; he wants to live for his people, serve them, and be useful.

With examples from literature

Victor Pelevin has the idea: “The search for the meaning of life is in itself the only meaning of life.” This phrase is beyond doubt. Each individual spends his entire life only searching for the purpose of existence, his own path in life.

Many works of art by Soviet authors prove the veracity of Viktor Pelevin’s catchphrase.

“War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy demonstrates the moral search of Andrei Bolkonsky. The writer focuses his interest not on the life path discovered by Andrei Balkonsky, but on the ups and downs that accompanied the character’s quest. L.N. Tolstoy points to the long journey of Prince Andrei, who thought about one, then another meaning of his existence. At first it seemed to Andrei Balkonsky that the purpose of existence lay in glory. Therefore, he, oppressed by the life of ordinary members of the secular class, decides to fulfill his duty to the Motherland, in search of “his Toulon.” When the traumatized Andrei Balkonsky looked at the heavenly expanse of Austerlitz, he realized that understanding the life goals contained in the recognition of the military was nothing more than a deception. Prince Andrei wants to realize himself by training his son, who was left without a mother. Then he is overwhelmed by social work in the Speransky commission. Then, disappointed in public life and feelings for Natasha Rostova, he is shown by the writer as a seeker of his true purpose in life. The character participates in the Patriotic War in 1812, and determines the meaning of his existence in the service of the Fatherland. The death of the hero is symbolic and not accidental, because he has already found the purpose of his existence and stopped all searching. Andrei Balkonsky can rest with a sense of accomplishment.

The thought of Viktor Pelevin is also reflected in the work of L. N. Tolstoy “War and Peace”. Pierre Bezukhov had the opportunity to occupy a niche in the upper class, which he regarded as the very goal of life. Only when he realized that high society was empty and low, he was extremely deceived by his expectations. He wants to become happy by uniting himself in marriage with Helen Kuragina, but this marriage was not destined to be happy, which led to even greater disappointments. Then the character tries to determine his happiness in belonging to the Freemasons, and also fails. The life of Pierre Bezukhov is full of ups and downs, so the search for life goals becomes his meaning.

From the above it is clear that the search for one’s place in life is the true meaning of human life in the literal sense of the word.

Arguments from life

Being a wife and mother and taking care of the home is the main purpose of a woman, so many of the fair half of humanity see the meaning of life in motherhood and children. Everyone in the village knows the family I want to talk about. There are six children in it. Mom is a simple woman, a hard worker. She does not have a higher education, modern fashionable clothes, or expensive cosmetics. She has never gone to the seaside on vacation, has never been abroad, but she has a kind heart in which there lives a great love for her family and children. Her whole life revolves around her children, and now her grandchildren too. It must be said that out of six children, three are not related to her by blood. Valentina Ivanovna married a widower with three daughters, the youngest of whom was only a few months old. At that time, she herself was also a widow with two children, and then married to her new husband, their common daughter Anna was born. Almost three decades have passed since she crossed the threshold of his house to become a full-fledged mistress and replace the girls’ deceased mother. Those girls have grown up long ago, managed to get married and are already raising children on their own, but during vacations or holidays they always rush to the one who became a real mother for them: she raised them, educated them, and did not sleep at night when they were sick. A woman never divided into friends and strangers; everyone had enough of her maternal affection, wisdom, and good advice. She put a piece of her soul into all six of them. Now he sees his happiness in his grandchildren. She raised the eldest of them from the cradle, accompanied him to school, was proud of him when he received a certificate, and escorted him into the army. Looking at this calm, wise woman, you understand that the meaning of her life is in her family, in her children. Without them, life would seem empty and worthless for Valentina Ivanovna.
And again about him, about the beloved Russian poet and writer A.S. Pushkin, whose life and work are the subject of study by many literary scholars and critics. What did the classic of Russian literature see as the meaning of his life? It seems to me that readers find the answer to this question in his works. His whole life is incessant creativity. Not a single day went by without new lines. Some were born with lightning speed, while others forced you to return to them again and again, until they were perfected the way the author wanted. His poetry and prose teach to love nature, to see everything beautiful in it, to admire its uniqueness and fragility. In any season, in any time of day, in the phenomenon of arrivals, the poet found his charm. He also wrote about love, chanting this unique feeling, idolizing the one who owned his heart and to whom he addressed his touching lines. And now almost the whole world repeats his lines “I remember a wonderful moment...”. Seeing the suffering of the people, the poet could not help but talk about the hardships of life of the peasants, about will and freedom and their necessity for every person, regardless of his social status. It is impossible not to say about works with a historical basis, in which the author expresses his views on many events of the past, as well as historical figures. His fairy tales become for each of us a kind of ticket to childhood. Once you open the book, you are immediately transported in your thoughts to a happy and unforgettable time in your life. A.S. It is impossible not to love and forget Pushkin. After all, he did everything for us, his readers. The meaning of the life of a poet and writer is in his work, which brought and continues to bring readers not only the pleasure of a beautiful style, but also great benefits, teaching excellent lessons.

Losing the meaning of life

What is a sense of life?

More than once we suddenly ask ourselves how, blind,

We don’t notice at all that EVERYTHING around us is filled with meaning!”

(Sergey Fetisov)

None of us like meaningless work. For example, carrying bricks there and then back. Dig “from here until lunch.” If we are asked to do such work, we are inevitably disgusted. Disgust is followed by apathy, aggression, resentment, etc.

Life is also work. And then it becomes clear why a meaningless life (life without meaning) pushes us to the point that we are ready to give up everything that is most valuable, but run away from this lack of meaning. (Psychologist Mikhail Khasminsky). But, fortunately, there is a meaning to life!

There are many situations in life when a person feels that life has lost its meaning for him. Most often, people who have experienced a tragedy in their lives associated with the loss of a close, dear, loved one think about this. Less often, but people who have lost their favorite job or material values ask this question. A person who seems to have everything in his life is trying to find an answer to this question: an interesting job, a decent salary, a beloved wife and children. He achieved what he wanted, what he strived for, but for some reason there are not those emotions, that satisfaction that he so expected to experience. Sooner or later, EVERY person thinks, tries to understand the meaning of certain events, actions, the meaning of his life! Another question is how to look for this meaning and then how to live with it?

Often, searching for an answer to this question takes a lot of time, effort and energy, but does not give any results, but only discourages the desire to move on. A person is in a state of apathy, despair or depression, he is angry with himself, with the whole world, complains about its injustice, asks himself questions: “Why?”, “Why do I need all this?”

A person who seeks meaning and does not find it is like a lost traveler,

finding himself in a ravine and looking for the right road. He wanders among the thick, thorny, tall bushes growing in the ravine, and there tries to find a way out to the road from which he has lost his way, to the path that will lead him to his goal.

When such a moment comes, day after day, month after month, year after year we wander in a vicious circle, seeing no way out. There is a feeling of being doomed to end up from one dead end to another all your life. As a result, we despair and come to the conclusion that there is no point at all. And such a reaction is not surprising!

But in fact, we were simply
looking in the wrong place!
You can understand the true, deep meaning of life only by working hard and acquiring some necessary knowledge

.
And this knowledge is available to each of us. We just don’t pay attention to these treasure troves of knowledge, we pass by them without noticing or contemptuously brushing them aside. All people of different generations have faced exactly the same problems that we face. There has always been betrayal, deception, emptiness of the soul, despair, betrayal, loss, disaster and illness. And people knew how to rethink and cope with it. And we can
use the colossal experience that previous generations have accumulated.

It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel; in fact, it was already invented a long time ago. All we have to do is learn how to ride it.

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Arguments from folk wisdom

“Life without love is like a year without summer,” says a Russian proverb. It means that the meaning of life should be love, since without it life is like a year without summer.
“Life is a ladder where some rise and others fall,” says a Russian proverb. Our ancestors compared life to a ladder, where some climb and others fall. They hinted that a person should strive to rise higher, overcome his weaknesses, complexes, and become wiser.
“Property will not prolong life, but it will improve life,” says a Russian proverb. She argues that material values cannot prolong a person’s life, but significantly improve its quality.
“Life with love is happy, but without love it is stupid,” says a Chinese proverb. The Chinese people believed that a person should strive to live his life with love in his heart, because such a life is happy, but without love it is stupid.
“A smile will bring you ten more years of life,” says the famous Russian proverb, which advises people to live in harmony with themselves and with the whole world, to smile more often, since a smile extends life by ten years.
“Live for people, people will live for you,” advises a Russian proverb. It says that the meaning of a person’s life can lie in serving people, especially those who need help and support.
“He lived and did not grieve about anything; he died and no one grieves about him,” says the Russian proverb. Our ancestors accurately noted in it that if a person was an egoist during his life, did not worry about anyone except himself, then after his death no one will worry about him.
“Man does not live by bread alone,” says the Russian proverb. She claims that a person needs not only bread, but also spiritual food.
“Life without a goal is an empty life,” our wise ancestors believed in a proverb. It states that a purposeless life is empty. Every person should have a goal to strive for.
“Cheerfulness, goodwill and honesty are good companions to take with you through life,” says a Spanish proverb. It says that a person’s life companions should be cheerfulness, goodwill and honesty.

The value of human life and his personal values

We are so designed that we begin to value something only after we lose it. But when it comes to your own life, having lost it, it is no longer possible to evaluate what it was like, since there will simply be no one to do it.

But as soon as a person faces life’s difficulties or feels the heavy breathing of a bony woman in a black hood next to him, he begins to notice how his old and already familiar ideas are crumbling, and he is on the threshold of something new and unknown.

It is his choice at this moment that will determine what values will take their place of honor in his life: material or spiritual. From my own experience and reviews from people I know, I know that in such moments everything material fades into the background.

It’s good if after such insights there is time left so that something can be changed and corrected in this life. But the events of recent years (due to the coronavirus pandemic) show that a thin lady increasingly comes to visit at the most inopportune time.

However, let's not talk about sad things. After all, if you focus your attention on the fact that the value of human life is determined primarily by personal attitude towards it, then everything falls into its rightful place.

It’s one thing when I, being confident that a person lives only once, try to get and prolong the pleasure from it as much as possible and do everything possible for this. And it’s a completely different case when the realization comes that earthly existence is only a prologue for a future and more perfect life.

In the first option, changes in my internal attitudes and beliefs will lead to the desire to realize my material picture of the world with all the ensuing life values in the form, for example, of the size of a bank account or prestigious foreign real estate.

But there is another approach, when human life is considered as a continuous process, including several separate, but very necessary stages, such as, for example, material earthly and spiritual extraterrestrial.

At the same time, the meaning of human life is to provide favorable conditions for the maturation and development of the divine soul-personality in the physical body and the fulfillment of the personal mission assigned to it.

In such a scenario, all the external material attributes of life represent the usual scenery of a theatrical performance. But the first places in the auditorium rightfully belong to the best human qualities: honor, dignity, conscience, faith, hope, love.

Aphorisms

“Through the achievement of great goals, a person discovers a great character in himself, which makes him a beacon for others,” said the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In his opinion, a person strengthens his character by achieving great goals. And having hardened, he becomes a beacon for other people.
“The main question of life is not ‘what can I get?’ but ‘what can I give?’” said British military leader Robert Baden-Powell. He argued that a person should live primarily not for himself, but for others, and more often wonder what else he can do for people.
“Know thyself” is excellent and useful advice; It’s just a pity that the ancients didn’t think of showing a way to use this advice,” wrote the Russian writer and playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. He believed that the meaning of life could lie in knowing oneself, but he regrets that the ancients did not think of indicating the method of knowledge.
"What is a sense of life? Serve others and do good,” said the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. He saw the meaning of life in serving people, in striving to do good.
“The task of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to live in accordance with the inner law that you recognize,” said the ancient Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. He argued that a person should not strive to live on the side of the majority, but try to live in harmony with his inner world.
“You cannot ask about the meaning of life - this meaning must be put into it,” said the French writer and diplomat Romain Gary. In his opinion, a person does not need to philosophize about the meaning of life, he needs to fill life with meaning.
“A life passed without serving the broad interests and objectives of society has no justification,” wrote the Russian writer, literary critic and publicist Nikolai Semenovich Leskov. In his opinion, the purpose and meaning of a person’s life lies in serving society and the people. The person who has not filled his existence with this meaning has no justification.
“He who lives only for himself is dead for others,” said the Roman poet Publilius Syrus. He rightly believed that the person who lives only for himself is considered non-existent, dead for others.
“The shortest expression of the meaning of life can be this: the world moves and improves. The main task is to contribute to this movement, submit to it and cooperate with it,” wrote the Russian writer and thinker Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy. According to the classic, the main task of a person is to contribute to the development and movement of society and the world, to live in cooperation with them, to obey them, and not to one’s selfish desires.
“The meaning of life is self-expression. To show our essence in its entirety is what we live for,” said the English writer and poet Oscar Wilde. The great classic of English literature believed that the meaning of life lies in self-expression, since any person lives in order to fully express his essence.

Search for the meaning of life (essay on literary and life impressions)

Victor Pelevin, a modern postmodernist writer, amazed me with his statement: “The meaning of life is in search of the meaning of life.” Indeed, humanity has been trying to comprehend its existence for more than one millennium, but an answer that suits everyone has not yet been found.

Everyone approaches this issue differently. Some people don’t think about it at all, considering philosophizing an empty and burdensome activity. As a rule, the life of such a person resembles a plant-based, mechanical one, reduced only to satisfying needs. It is not for nothing that the concept of “consumer society” arose. Such a position leads to a gradual loss of spirituality and moral sense, that is, a person ceases to be a person, retaining all the functions of a biological individual.

One can reasonably object: “Does the search for the meaning of life bring happiness? Will a person find peace if this search is crowned with success? But no one promised ease in comprehending the secrets of existence and one’s own “I”. If only it were that simple! Let’s imagine that everyone will find their own answer to the eternal question about the meaning of life. What will happen in the end? Chaos? A robot society with a proven program of action? You will inevitably agree with Pelevin: it is better to believe all your life in the existence of an absolute, immutable truth for everyone and strive for it in order to find harmony.

Trying to find ourselves, we do not stand still, but change, develop, and improve. Let's remember L.N. Tolstoy: he argued that stopping is spiritual death. Eternal motion is, apparently, the mission of Man that the Creator entrusted to us. Yes, this constant search is associated with disappointment, loss, pain. The main thing is not to lose faith in yourself, in the original meaningfulness of what is happening. The solution is to continue searching without fear of making a mistake.

More than a dozen works of world literature are devoted to the “eternal” theme of searching for the meaning of life. In Russia, great attention was paid to this issue by the luminaries of literature - A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.S. Turgenev, A.P. Chekhov. And this series can be continued.

The hero of the novel A.S. Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” is a “superfluous man”, bored by the lack of meaning in the life that he is forced to lead as a representative of his time and his class. Having not begun to study properly (“We all learned a little something and somehow”), he tries to engage in mental work, but quickly loses interest in this due to laziness.

Fate presents Onegin with a priceless gift - the love of an inexperienced girl. However, love is not needed by a person who has not found himself. He is indifferent and cold, and therefore easily commits a crime - he kills a friend in a duel, which he himself provoked out of boredom. Then, to escape his melancholy, “he began wandering without a goal.” That's it, the key word is goal! Without it, a person finds himself in a spiritual vacuum, losing not only the meaning, but also the very taste of life. This goal cannot be found in useless wanderings around the world. Did Onegin find what he was looking for? Have you lost what you had?

In any case, he regrets that he passed by love, which he lost irretrievably.

Evgeny Bazarov, hero of the novel by I.S. Turgenev's "Fathers and Sons", sees the goal of his life in destruction, in the denial of everything that was created before. Should I follow his example? Or stay with your (even conservative) convictions, as the Kirsanovs do? Which one is right? Which side is the truth on? In this work, the question of the meaning of life rests on the solution to the problem of “fathers” and “children,” but there are problems of continuity of generations. Later F.M. Dostoevsky will create his “ideological novels”, where the basis of the conflict will be the struggle of ideas, and the heroes will prove the truth of their theories based on the material of their own lives.

Anticipating the unprecedented scope of human ambitions, prophetically predicting the birth of monstrous ideas, Dostoevsky calls on the reader to trust the teachings of Christ in the name of the salvation of the world and humanity. With each of his works, the writer strives to convince us that the only goal worthy of a person is the service of Good. Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy agrees with him on this. For him, as for his favorite heroes (Andrei Bolkonsky, Pierre Bezukhov, Konstantin Levin), the meaning of life lies in the constant search for truth. Peace of mind, according to Tolstoy, is meanness. And, therefore, long live the movement, the endless path of the soul to perfection!

Writers persistently call us not to give up, not to rest on our laurels. It is criminal not to heed this call when you are seventeen years old and life opens its horizons to you. If only I had enough strength!

Source: School essays for “A”. For schoolchildren and applicants. - M.: Book World LLC, 2004