Analysis Of Richard Miller's 'Dark Night Of The Soul'

There has been a flood of folklore and popular myth on the subject of supernatural beings capable of sucking the life out of their victims. One can find a mention of these creatures throughout the centuries. From a Succubus in the Bible to the Vampires of today’s Twilight Sagas, the short story “Luella Miller” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman is no different. This story, unlike many other tails, did not just come out and say that the creature was present for sure; it more or less hinted to it possible existences. Also the hypnotic state that the victims were in brings the reader to believe that something unnatural is at hand. With a closer look through the eyes of our narrator, Lydia Anderson, we can

“The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing” (Carr 773). Carr’s point is because people are using the web, it is making it harder for them to concentrate and process information. Carr and Turkle both suggest in their articles that people now have lost the ability to be able to concentrate and to be

The text I know why the caged bird cannot read Francine Prose describes the reasons why high school students seem to dislike reading. She supports her idea with saying the problem starts with teaching moral values through literature, instead of teaching the value of literature itself. She also blames the education system that enforces these books to be placed in the curriculum. These books only focus on a reoccurring problem like racism religion or gender identity. And the curriculum works around that to teach the student right from wrong and moral values. Which puts the student on a path of hatred to literature.

In Francine Prose’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read: How American High School Students Learn to Loathe Literature”, the author is trying to explain why high school students are not asked to read more quality pieces of literature now a days. In my opinion I agree with Prose because I think the texts we read in high school are not challenging and not a lot of students enjoy the readings because they cannot relate. Prose uses the rhetorical strategy of degrading the books high school students are reading and she uses her own personal experiences to support her argument.

he short anecdote above accurately represents the situation of many students across the globe. Throughout the last decade, technology had exploded in a way so immensely that nothing and nobody can stop it. Not even educators. This is why taking the easy way out of assignments has become such a frequently used method by students everywhere. It is evident that students of this generation have become complacent in a “short-cut” society.

It can be quite a shock to confront the possibility that reading, writing, and talking exercise almost none of the powers we regularly attribute to them in our favorite stories. The dark night of the soul for literacy workers comes with the realization that training students to read, write, and talk in more critical and self- reflective ways cannot protect them from the violent changes our culture is undergoing.

The following is a summary on the short essay The Dark Night of the Soul by Richard E Miller. This short essay is an essay that has been written with a main point always in mind, that reading and writing has very powerful influences people and their imagination but, the act of reading and writing is not being utilized as much in the modern world. Richard has created an essay that proves his point by taking five very different short stories and giving each a twist that helps the reader see the power of reading. As the reader is chronologically going through the essay he or she is given many possible meanings of the essay. The meaning and the

As I read, “The Dark Night of the Soul” by Richard E. Miller, I found it to be an interesting read. He inquires, why we read, why we write and what might literate arts be said to be good for? In his essay he describes the school massacres that have occurred throughout the years. As he describes these events, he asks a deeper question, “What is the point of continuing to read, write and learn in the face of such underlying dangers. I think that with all that is happening, individuals/students should continue with education because reading, television, writing and communication makes a difference in the lives of individuals around the world. The bottom line is that literary art has a way of touching students unexpectedly one way or another and students should not just throw the art away because of society’s perception.

It has recently been brought to the attention of the school, PTA, and Grayson County Board of Education that there has been a reading assignment of Dead until Dark, a book by author Charlaine Harris, in an English class. Concerns have been raised as to the appropriateness of said book as it has been referenced by some parents as “mindless, wanton filth and smut” and it has been called upon for the removal of the teacher who originally signed the piece. While understandably parents have a right as to the concern of their children and should be interested in what they are learning, the removal of a teacher under the circumstances of their curriculum and the assignment of one book, is not something which should be taken as a light matter and should

Richard E. Miller essay “The Dark Night of the Soul” to be an interesting way to think about reading and writing in today’s world. Richard uses the violence in the world to question if our educational system is relevant to keeping us safe and whether the power literature can be used to change the tragic event that happen around us every day.

“And this also, ' ' said Marlow suddenly, ``has been one of the dark places of the Earth. ' ' (Conrad) Are the first words spoken aloud by Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Marlow goes on the say that he was thinking about the Roman conquerors who came to England 1900 years ago. This comparison that Marlow divulges into in the beginnings of his story frames this story and what it intends to cover in its subject matter. Marlow begins here his only overt characterization of imperialism. He puts Rome in the position of the civilized and the native islanders in the position of the savage and what truly distinguishes one from another is not any level of civility but power. Marlow claims that “It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind – as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness.” (Conrad) Marlow draws an immediate comparison between Rome and England and England and Congo. Marlow’s story of the Roman Empire invading England shows the permanence of the phenomenon upon which he is writing. Marlow’s juxtaposition of the invasion of England at the hands of the Romans will directly parallel the Congo’s occupation at the hands of Belgium. What is at the heart of Marlow’s journey, is a search for what redeems or even justifies the robbery and murder of peoples. Heart of Darkness and its Author is often mistakenly associated with literature that promulgated the idea that Europe had been tasked with the “noble cause”

The power of the poet is not only to convey an everyday scene into a literary portrait of words, but also to interweave this scene into an underlying theme. The only tool the poet has to wield is the word. Through a careful placement and selection of words, the poet can hopefully make his point clear, but not blatantly obvious. Common themes of poems are life, death, or the conflicting forces thereto. This theme could never possibly be overused because of the endless and limitless ways of portraying life or death through the use of different words.

Psychoanalytic criticism originated in the work of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who pioneered the technique of psychoanalysis. Freud developed a language that described, a model that explained, and a theory that encompassed human psychology. His theories are directly and indirectly concerned with the nature of the unconscious mind. Through his multiple case studies, Freud managed to find convincing evidence that most of our actions are motivated by psychological forces over which we have very limited control (Guerin 127). One of Freud’s most important contributions to the study of the psyche is his theory of repression: the unconscious mind is a repository of repressed desires,

The author in the Black Robe article depicts the inaccuracies of the film such as how no Indian of New France would have agreed to a 1,500 mile expedition in the middle of the winter. The only knowledge we have to go off of reviewing the past is based on the historical letters the missionaries’ wrote their superiors. In The Crucible the author Arthur Miller portrays young Abigail Williams to have had an affair with the elderly John Proctor, records show that Abigail was eleven and John was sixty. The movie based on Arthur Miller’s play portrays Abigail played by Winona Ryder as a young woman who is sexually attracted to John played by Daniel Day-Lewis who is looks to be middle aged. Historians would argue the view based on Miller’s play of the girls’ behavior most likely being a cry for attention based on historical facts and records rather than the play viewing their behavior of accusing numerous victims of practicing witchcraft based on their parents’ enmity toward their neighbors and the girls’ hysteria to sexual frustration as a consequence of puritan repression. When data based on records of marriages and births shortly after marriage shows that communities in puritan New England had an extremely low rate of premarital intercourse. In The Patriot article the writer mentions numerous inaccuracies in the film. There was no such person as Benjamin Martin played by Mel Gibson who led the rebel militia. Also historians argue that although the character Colonel Tavington who

However, some would say that within education, the use of technology can influence students to cheat or take the easy way out on their assignments. “Students today can easily access essays, reports, class notes, tests, etc. online, making it that much more difficult for teachers to know if the work their students hand in is original” (Ronan). This dilemma interferes with teenagers processing new information. The Internet is a great tool; however, teens may rely too heavily on it, and worse, believe everything they see. I believe that the internet can be a great source to gain more knowledge, however, one needs to acknowledge how to effectively use this tool to benefit them.