Art MoL Essay Draft One

The ideas that the meanings of our lives are controlled by what other people say and do have been around for a long time. In his book “Survivor”, Chuck Palahniuk explores a step further and creates a character that has, throughout his entire life, had his meaning of life created and controlled directly by other people. Through this character Palahniuk demonstrates how modern day culture is now doing this for all of us and the meaning of life has become something impersonal that is created by other people. He does this through a secondary characters outlook on the world in the story, the main characters life as a member of the so-called “Creedish Death Cult”, and through his life afterwards as the publicly promoted hero/sole surviving member of the “Creedish Death Cult.”

The main character, Tender Branson, has always had everything in his life controlled by others, even the meaning of his life has always been dictated by other people and never by himself. This is first evident in his situation with the “Creedish Death Cult,” in which he was raised, named (even his name was dictated by what point in the family he was born. Because he was not a first-born, and because he was male, he was named Tender, just like every other second born male in the cult), taught beliefs, and sent to work. All these things are controlled by the leading members of the Creedish “cult”. “If you met someone form the church district colony, you could say: May you be of complete service in your lifetime. You could say: Praise and glory to the Lord for this day through which we labor. […] That was the limit. […] No hugging. No hand shaking. You would say one approved bit. She would say one. The two of you would of back and forth until each of you had said two lines. You kept your heads bowed, and you each went back to your task.” All his actions, interactions, jobs, and relationships were controlled by the Creedish Church, and by controlling all of these things they controlled his meaning of life, which Palahniuk is using as a blatant example for how all of our life meanings are controlled by others.

Palahniuk further expands this example by highlighting Tender Branson’s life after the entire Creedish Church (which was a suicide cult) has died and he is the sole surviving member. His life meaning then becomes controlled by the people who want to use him as a publicity stunt and make money off of him. “In the shadows, the agent and the writers give each other silent high fives. The agent gives me a big thumbs-up. My hands are numb. I can’t feel my face. My tongue belongs to someone else.” His life meaning has now become dictated by the “Tele-Prompter” which he reads off of as instructed by the writers and his agent. Palahniuk has now given us two examples of how this one persons life is controlled by others and uses Tender as the overarching example for how all our lives are controlled by others.

While most of the book focuses on the example of Tender Branson, Palahniuk is able to bring the example to the rest of America through the views of a secondary character who states that “We all grew up with the same television shows. It’s like we all have the same artificial memory implants. We remember almost none of our real childhoods, but we remember everything that happened to sitcom families. We have the same basic goals. We all have the same fears.” This is what the book is exploring about the meaning of life. How all of our life meanings have become dictated by other people, mainly the media, and how we will never have control of our lives until we commit suicide (hence the use of an suicide cult as an example for the main character.) In a sense the book is saying that life is meaningless because you will never have control over it.

The idea that life is meaningless is explored in other means of art as well. The song zero sum also explores the idea that life is meaningless through the idea of the end of the world, and the lead singer talks about how life has been fairly meaningless up until that point in time. “shame on us; doomed from the start; may god have mercy; on our dirty little hearts; shame on us; for all we have done; and all we ever were; just zeros and ones” This line talks about how up until now (the end of the world) everyone has wasted their lives, and because everyone’s lives have been wasted, and now that there’s no chance to make it up (due to the fact that it’s the end of the world) our lives are meaningless. This song does a good job of expressing ideas about the meaning of life in song form. Along with the aforementioned chorus other lyrics in the song bring out the idea that even though life is meaningless and has been wasted, it was still important to enjoy life all the same: “and i guess i just wanted to tell you; as the lights start to fade; that you are the reason; that i am not afraid; and i guess i just wanted to mention; as the heavens will fall we will be together soon if we; will be anything at all” What he is implying is that although the earth is ended, he is still glad that he was able to enjoy the time spent with the person he is talking too (presumably a lover). This expresses the idea that even though life is meaningless because you die in the end, it is still important to enjoy life without worrying about your inevitable fate.

The song Zero Sum is not the only piece of art that expresses the meaning of life in that sort of way. The movie The Seventh Seal expresses similar ideas to the song about death and enjoying life. Throughout the movie the main character is striving off death by playing chess with him. The movie expresses how death is inevitable, and that death always will make life meaningless in the end, but that even though life is meaningless in the face of death, you still have to enjoy the finer things in life. In the movie this enjoyment is symbolized by the innocences of the traveling actor family, who share strawberries with the main character during the journey and all how him enjoy life. The innocence of their child and the main characters reaction to the child shows that life is ment to be enjoyed, and that one should not brood over death, because it will happen to all of us.

The enjoyment of life is a reoccurring theme in art about the meaning of life. The writing piece Rita Hayworth and the shawshank redemtion covers ideas about enjoying life no matter what situation you are in. The main hero in the book, Andy, is said to enjoy life and not let the institution of prision get him down, which is the main theme of the story in relation to the meaning of life. The idea is that no matter what situation you are in (such as facing death as in the Seventh Seal) you still need to enjoy the finer things in life, this is shown in the shawshank redemtion by the way andy lives in prison and how he still retains who he is even though prison tries to break him down.