“The Dark Night of the Soul” is a chapter in the book, Writing at the End of the World by Richard Miller. In this chapter, Miller gives many examples of how reading and writing help the world, and he asks questions to find out if literature, and his teachings cause a change in the present day. Miller states, “Why bother with reading and writing when the world is so obviously going to hell?”(Dark Night of the Soul 433). I believe that this is the best statement to summarize what Miller is trying to get across. Why read? Why write? Is it going to matter in the end? Does it truly help anyone? These are all questions that arise from the author while reading this chapter.
What is the dark night of the soul? It is a term used to describe what one could call a collapse of a perceived meaning in life, an eruption into your life of a deep sense of meaninglessness. The inner state in some cases is very close to what is usually called depression. Nothing makes sense anymore, there’s no purpose to anything. Sometimes it’s triggered by some external event, some disaster perhaps, on an external level. The death of someone close to you could trigger it, especially premature death, for example, if your child dies. Or you had built up your life, and given it meaning, and the meaning that you had given your life, your activities, your achievements, where you are going, what is considered important, and the meaning that you
gave your life, for some reason, collapses. In a religious meaning, I believe it is best described by St. John of the Cross as “the soul’s journey to the divine union of the love of God” (Perrine). The darkness represents the hardships and difficulties the soul meets in detachment from the world and reaching t...
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...page out of their books and try to live our live
with their teachings in mind. The importance of having a good support system that we all create is of grave importance and the effects of not creating such could be disastrous. Our futures, confidence and even our self-respect can all be affected by not creating our own motivation or having rock so to speak, to always be there for us to pull us through. Rather than avoiding hard situations in our lives we should go through them, because avoidance will undoubtedly only make the situation worse. Going through the situation may not always be the path of least resistance but in the long run can prove to be a very important decision. If what pulls each of us through is reading, writing, movies, or music, I hope that we all can find it and put it to good use, and we can become better people because of it.
I think the main idea the narrators is trying to emphasize is the theme of opposition between the chaotic world and the human need for community with a series of opposing images, especially darkness and light. The narrator repeatedly associates light with the desire to clear or give form to the needs and passions, which arise out of inner darkness. He also opposes light as an idea of order to darkness in the world, the chaos that adults endure, but of which they normally cannot speak to children.
At times, ”Dawn”, can be a metaphor for a time of clarity. It is also called an “epiphany”. When a person has an epiphany, it may cause them to realize that there is a bigger problem the whole time. Similarly, as Romeo and Juliet were completing their final conversation before Romeo is banished, Juliet exclaims, “‘ As one dead in the bottom of a tomb’” (Romeo and Juliet 3.5.56). In Shakespeare's famous play, Romeo and Juliet, Juliet realizes that there is bigger problem because she has the epiphany of Romeo dead in a tomb. Likewise, while saying that there is too much pain and suffering, the narrator explains that, ‘“At sunrise …Too much pain, too much pressure’’”(doc.1). This quote from Campbell’s song, ”Sunrise”, demonstrates that epiphanies
Despite the adversity that plagued the children of South Boston throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Southie native Michael Patrick MacDonald often remarked that he grew up in “the best place in the world,” suggesting that while adversity can be crippling, it does not guarantee a bad life. Throughout his childhood, MacDonald and his family suffered from extreme poverty, experienced the effects of drugs on the family structure, and felt the poor educational effects in a struggling neighborhood. Through his memoir, All Souls, readers gain an in-depth perspective of Michael Patrick MacDonald’s life, especially his childhood. Because readers are able to see MacDonald as both a child and an adult, it is possible to see how the circumstances of his childhood
The time period this work takes place in is a very gloomy and frightening time. He wakes up in a dark place by himself and in fear, which makes things worse. A common theme we can relate this dark place to is when we fall off of the path of God. Since God represents all things good, the dark is the exact opposite. Since everything is not so clear in the wood he his describing, the path back to God is even more difficult to attain.
creatures, no one ever stops to think about the darkness that lies within a person’s heart which
Many people think that reading more can help them to think and develop before writing something. Others might think that they don’t need to read and or write that it can really help them to brainstorm things a lot quicker and to develop their own ideas immediately (right away). The author’s purpose of Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, is to understand the concepts, strategies and understandings of how to always read first and then start something. The importance of this essay is to understand and comprehend our reading and writing skills by brainstorming our ideas and thoughts a lot quicker. In other words, we must always try to read first before we can brainstorm some ideas and to think before we write something. There are many reasons why I chose Stephen King’s essay, Reading to Write, by many ways that reading can help you to comprehend, writing, can help you to evaluate and summarize things after reading a passage, if you read, it can help you to write things better and as you read, it can help you to think and evaluate of what to write about.
The novel Night demonstrates that the human spirit can be affected by the power of false hope, by religion, and that one will do whatever it will take to survive for oneself and family.
When you see something traumatizing, do you cry? Well for some people out there in this world do not show any emotion for something that can scar others for life. In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, many people see violence no other person has ever seen on a daily basis. Most people became emotionally dead while trying to indorse the strength to move on. Recent years, we had similar event occur like kids in South Sudan being force to be kid soldiers and kids in the Middle East seeing daily warface around them. The theme of “emotional death” is very evidential in the book Night, and it is still relevant today.
What is suggested by these and other references to darkness? What do darkness suggest in the story and what is also one or more of the symbols in the story “Sonny Blues”. Darkness is maintained many time thought the story. The story goes back and forth from light to darkness. Each character goes though some darkness thought their life’s in different situation. They managed to get though the darkest of life and move on. They keep living their lives and try to better themselves by doing positive things. By them finding ways to handle the darkness they went though they can overcome it ,the problems it cause them and put them through to see the light that was hidden behind the darkness.
In Richard E. Miller’s essay, The Dark Night of the Soul, he first focuses on two teenage boys, boys who murderously rampaged through Columbine High School in Santee, California. Then he further discusses who was to blame, but most importantly would this event not had transpired if education had a more adamant impact if these young men had read more. Simply, would Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold killed if there was a more proactive approach to the educational system or government to “reduce or eliminate altogether the threat of the unpredictable or unforeseen [the amalgamation of elements that would result in a mass shooting] (Miller 421).”Additionally, if McCandless, a young man who eulogized the idealisms of authors that he used to make sense
In the story Sonny's Blues the author, James Baldwin, uses the image of darkness quite frequently. He uses it first when the older brother (main character) talks about his younger brother Sonny. He says that when Sonny was younger his face was bright and open. He said that he didn't want to believe that he would ever see his "brother going down, coming to nothing, all that light in his face gone out." Meaning he had gone from good (clean and innocent) to bad ( giving into drugs like so many of the other young people).
The child’s game had ended. After I nearly ran Kurtz over, we stood facing each other. He was unsteady on his feet, swaying like the trees that surrounded us. What stood before me was a ghost. Each layer of him had been carved away by the jungle, until nothing remained. Despite this, his strength still exceeded that of my own. With the tribal fires burning so close, one shout from him would unleash his natives on me. But in that same realization, I felt my own strength kindle inside me. I could just as easily muffle his command and overtake him. The scene flashed past my eyes as though I was remembering not imagining. The stick that lay two feet from me was beating down on the ghost, as my bloodied hand strangled his cries. My mind abruptly reeled backwards as I realized what unspeakable dark thoughts I had let in. Kurtz seemed to understand where my mind had wandered; it was as though the jungle’s wind has whispered my internal struggles to him. His face twisted into a smile. He seemed to gloat and enjoy standing by to watch my soul begin to destroy itself.
“A stronger light pressed upon my nerves, so that I was obliged to shut my eyes. Darkness then came over me,
The play, the Sunset Limited by Cormac McCarthy, is talking about a two people Black and White. White is a professor who thinks that his life is full of darkness he decides to jump off the railroad to end his life. While Black used to be in jail and he used to live in the darkness. But later he read the Bible and he start to believe in God. Black save White's life and bring him to Black’s house and try to tell use Bible and his experience White that life is full of meaning and hope. But because of White thinks that he has read more book and more has more knowledge than Black and he is trying to deny Black that the life is full of darkness. Black fail to convince White not to suicide. Because of that , Black feels his life fall back into the
Comparisons and contrasts are important devices which an author may use to help convey his thoughts and feelings about a situation or an event. Joseph Conrad makes use of these devices in his novel Heart of Darkness. Throughout the novel when he was trying to convey a deeper meaning about a situation or a place, he would us a comparison or contrast. The comparative and contrasting themes in the story help to develop Conrad's ideas and feelings in the Heart of Darkness. Light verses dark, the Thames verses the Congo, the Savages compared to the civilized people, and the darkness of both worlds are all contrasts and comparisons that are important to the meaning as well as the understanding of this novel.