View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through "The Case for a Tragic Optimism" (through page 179).

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Was there art in the concentration camp?
(a) Yes, there were gatherings with songs, poems, jokes, and some satire.
(b) No, the prisoners were far too depressed to care for art.
(c) No, there was no such thing as the rules prohibiting self-expression were strict.
(d) Yes, there were many prisoners (including Frankl) who attempted literature.

2. As Frankl and his fellow prisoners watched fellow prisoners, what could they calculate?
(a) When they would be sent to the gas chambers.
(b) Each other's lifespans.
(c) How badly they had been beaten.
(d) How much they had eaten.

3. During the time that the author spent in concentration camps, what does he describe as his main work?
(a) Working in the kitchen.
(b) Digging and laying tracks for railway lines.
(c) Preparing bodies for burial.
(d) Cleaning the guards' living and work quarters.

4. Frankl writes that values do not push, but pull people. Why does he make this distinction?
(a) To argue that man does not create values, but instead recognizes them.
(b) To show that there is always freedom of choice.
(c) To demonstrate that people are born with values.
(d) To show that they are part of the inner life of man.

5. When Frankl ran the neurological department of a general hospital, what did he say he witnessed?
(a) That "suffering is a choice."
(b) He saw that "patients who listen to their own inner voice end up happier and healthier."
(c) His patient's capactity to "turn their predicaments into human achievements."
(d) "That suffering is only momentary, but the attitudes that lead to happiness can last a lifetime."

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Frankl's understanding of individual meaning differ from that of Jean-Paul Sartre?

2. How does logotherapy deal with spiritual issues?

3. How does the friend of the author, who "smuggled himself" into the author's hut, suggest that the prisoners try to stay alive?

4. What does Frankl argue happened in camp to "sensitive people used to a rich intellectual life"?

5. How did Frankl earn the favor of "The Murderous Capo"?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 482 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample