Austin Magruder - Existentialism

Existentialism deals with the notion that human beings are responsible for creating meaning in their lives. The film Requiem for a Dream is about four individuals who struggle with drug addiction and it eventually gets the best of them. This notion of creating meaning in one's life is very prevalent in the film. The characters of this film lead boring lives, they do not have jobs, and apparently do not have many friends other than each other. The meaning in life that the four addicts are trying to create is in my opinion, happiness, they all want to be happy. They seek happiness through success, however this dream seems distant, so to be happy in the mean time, they use drugs to dull the pain that is their current unhappiness. We all want to be happy, and many of us do find some form of this, some people just choose the wrong path and get lost on the way.