In the novel Siddartha, by Herman Hesse, the main character is taught many life lessons as he strives to achieve self fulfillment. However, not all the methods he used would be helpful for him in the long run.
For example, in chapter two, Siddartha decides to join the Semanas in their way of suffrage. They believed that for one to achieve fulfillment, the body and mind must suffer. However, he regrets his decision, reflecting back on it with his friend, Govinda. He tells his friend, “I could have learned these lessons through much simpler means.” It shows that even though he suffered, his lessons were in vain because he did not reach fulfillment through them.
This can also be said about the modern, everyday world. Has anything bad happened to you, be it stubbing your toe or maybe the death of a family member and you think, “why did this happen to me?” And when you confide in someone about those thoughts, they say, “everything happens for a reason.” That seems unfair to me. How can someone justify losing a family member? How can someone justify war?
How, in any way, is there a justification in suffering? Because it teaches us a lesson? Yes, maybe, or we could have just learned in other ways. Ways in which suffering could be minimized, lessened, gotten rid of entirely. Sometimes, suffering does not always teach a lesson.
Quaranteen 
I really like and agree with your central idea that suffering cannot be justified with the belief that it is meant to teach a lesson along with the examples you included to effectively illustrate this claim. I often reflect on why unfavorable experiences occur when they do, and I can hardly find any reasoning to explain why I should have to endure the suffering I am put through. I suppose it can be argued that these difficult experiences are the natural way to prevent mistakes and carelessness, but many of them, such as being burned by a fire due to one’s innate curiosity or your example of stubbing one’s toe, still seem to involve an unnecessary amount of suffering.
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I like how you constantly questioned the justification of how “everything happens for a reason”. It made me continuously think about how unnecessary suffering can just be summed up by that phrase. We go through lots of pain and a lot of the time we have no reason why. We find ourselves so frustrated and caught up in the moment wondering why it happened to us for a reason but not someone else.
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