Questioning the explaination of life in Siegfried Lenz's tales and novels

The aim of this thesis which has been created after hard work and self-sacrifice is exposing the puzzle "meaning of the life" which preoccupies the humanity since the existence; developing different point of views; helping people interrogate the meaning of the life further; revealing the ways of having happy and meaningful life and discussing the modern world's social, economic, cultural, political, psychological, etc. problems in details; and showing the solutions for these problems, regarding the tales and novels which reflect Siegfried Lenz's spiritual world who has a significant place in German literature. With this purpose, in the first part Siegfried Lenz's personality, his literature, his novels and in the second part his stories are inquired. Thanks to this text oriented inquiry, Sigfield Lenz's point of view to the life and his thoughts for the meaning of the life are exposed. In today's world in which the meaning of the life is questioned densely. These works, which Sigfield Lenz created, are going to be a guide to today's modern people who try to get away from existentialist emptiness. Today, the meaning of the life, which is the basis of this thesis, has been questioned more than ever. Among the reasons are the existence of humanity, the effort for escaping from existentialist emptiness, the wish for having a meaningful, happy and ethereal life, the damage of colonization accelerated after Industrial Revaluation on societies, mechanization, capitalism, materialism, jealousy, wars and deaths since Habel and Qabel. Today's modern or advancing in the way of modernization societies' welfare levels and financial powers have been increased relative to past centuries. However, this increase has never been effective in the opening the doors of happiness. Although, today's modern human-beings have houses, cars, yachts, expensive elegant design mobile phones, invaluable jewelleries, goods renewed every day and have reached the luxury and comfortable life, they are still longing for the happiness societies through primitive ages or from suburban regions have. In short, Industrial Revaluation, capitalism, technological developments, mechanization, materialism, temporary desires, happiness for the moment are insufficient for explaining the life itself, these changes have left the legacy of nothing but cunning and temporary happiness, rivalry, jealousy, anger and stress, disappointments, loneliness, fear, pessimism, selfishness, hostility, etc. which are against human nature. Today's modern people who are aware of what's happening can have a meaningful and happy life which they are after, only by giving importance to human values, friendships which people lost, neighbourhood, and relatives; by living in harmony with nature; socializing; with peace, love, respect, solidarity, tolerance and goodwill; paying more attention to spiritual values than earthy ones; performing permanent and useful things; making effort and spending the time in correct time and place; fulfilling the responsibilities; thinking; questioning the meaning of life; explaining the questionings as it is often underlined in Siegfried Lenz's tales and novels. Keywords: meaning of the life, existentialist emptiness, Industrial Revolution, colonization, capitalism, materialism, mechanization, happiness, spiritualism.