n sanity. When Man changes from passivity to activity, he loses the guidance and order inherent in a passive lifestyle. He is surrounded by what seems to be chaos, what seems to be without order, and cannot figure out how to regain the pleasure they lost. When Man has never lived actively, he is filled with a fear of his own inadequacy, a fear of being without the protection of passivity. To protect himself from this fear, I believe that Man creates within himself an instinctual, natural desire for meaning. Man hopes to use this meaning as protection and guidance, a way back to pleasure. This meaning can take any form, from a lifes work, to religion, to an acceptance of inadequacy, sometimes even a life of passivity. (Passivity must not be dismissed entirely as a philosophy, even after it has been lost. Many people do go back to a passive life, if they can find it. Elderly people, for example, often go back to the passivity of their youth.) Existentialists call this period of new-found meaning their Leap of Faith. Kierkegaard refers to the search and chaos as the Adolescent Stage and the final acceptance of activity and meaning as the Adult Stage. I would venture to say that each of these three authors has reached the Adult Stage of their development, or has, at least, gone through the collapse of a passive existence at least once. The knowledge they have of the experience points to a past crisis, and the fact that they remained around long enough to write their books is a testament to their survival. Arthur Miller married Marilyn Monroe, so we know everything turned out all right. Heh Heh. In Mans Search for Meaning we even see the completion of Frankls cycle. From what I know of Tolstoys history, he had the same types of dilemmas written about in Ivan Ilych and several other short stories. He was Russian Aristocracy and felt extremely guilty about his wealth and the unfair nature of his status. He attempted celibacy ...
