Let There Be Darkness, By Paul Bogard

The experience of darkness is both individual and universal. Within Emily Dickinson’s “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night,” the speakers engage in an understanding of darkness and night as much greater than themselves. Every individual has an experience of the isolation of the night, as chronicled in Frost’s poem, yet it is a global experience that everyone must face, on which Dickinson’s poem elaborates. Through the use of rhythm, point of view, imagery, and mood, each poet makes clear the fact that there is no single darkness that is too difficult to overcome.

Paul Bogard is is an author who published "Let There Be Dark". In this text, he goes on to speak about the importance that darkness has in the world. Throughout many crowded, busy places in the world that keep lights on have an effect of damaging the darkness. The author's purpose for this piece of writing is to address the problems with having the lights on while it is dark out. The way he gets through with this purpose is by using figurative language and very sophisticated diction.

Bogard first discusses the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association’s consensus on the health disorders caused by the lack of darkness. Diseases ranging from minor ailments such as sleep disorders to severe chronic issues such as diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer all root from the lack of darkness. Not only does the lack of darkness has taken a toll on some people’s health, but the reduction has caused ecological collapse in parts of the world. Bogard clearly presents the point that many animal and plant species rely on the darkness of the night to perform their role in the ecosystem. Ecological functions such as pollination and pest control would simply collapse under light pollution, the “bulldozer of the night.” Bogard presented such dire consequences to reestablish his point about the removal of

All the light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, chronicles the lives and relationship between Marie and Werner, two children who grew up in France and Germany. The society around them forces discriminatory ideals that cloud their perception of the world, but they find its meaning through their own self-definition. In this, they are both guided by a single radio and the message and legacy that it contains. Throughout the book, the author isolated the two characters, but also created subtle connections between the two. The most important of which would be the radio. It created a bond between the two where they learned from each other’s experiences and struggles. All the Light We Cannot See recreates a new picture of the world by contrasting the two separate journeys taken by Marie- Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig to gain that image, which is guided by the power of a radio and the message it contains, ultimately leading to the meeting of the two characters that officially forms an image of the world where one’s actions are valued more than one’s physical features.

COLLAPSE by Jared Diamond attempts to answer the question, “What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?”

In the beginning of the bible, the world was dark. Then God created light in order to make it brighter. However, when the God is not here to protect the light, Night overtook. It is a time of darkness. It is also a place where people cannot see and help each other. Because of the faith in God, the darkness, hopeless of Night, and the period of Night, Elle Wiesel’s famous short novel is called “Night”, which is very significant for Elle Wiesel as well as the Jews during World War II.

In Holly Wren Spaulding’s essay, “In Defense of Darkness,” her main claim is that we have fallen away from darkness and immersed ourselves in a society of lightness. Furthermore, she claims this has lead humans to lose touch with basic human emotion as well as the sensual and spiritual experience true darkness has to offer. Spaulding makes this claim evident through exceptional use of personal testimony and copious appeals to value.

Night: a pitch-black time of day in which no light is shown, other than the reflection of sunlight off of the moon's surface. Darkness is scary when alone and can also be dangerous to those not cautious. Elie Wiesel is a survivor of something so gruesome but inspiring to all people who have read the Nobel Peace Prize winner's novel. Elie was trapped in a darkness he could not escape until the world once realized it was not all about themselves. To be free and living a life worth living then in a matter of seconds, being confined as though you are a zoo animal. Only to be observed at a distance with no pity or thought that lies behind those caged doors; And once that caged animal is released, not all of it is free.

Darkness at Noon, written by British novelist Arthur Koestler in 1940, is a criticism of Stalinism and the methods used by the Communist Party in the USSR. The novel was set in 1938 during the Stalinist Great Purge and Moscow show trials. Even though the story depicts actual occurrences, it does not specifically name either Russia or the USSR, but the characters do have Russian names while other generic terms are used to depict individuals and associations. For instance, the Soviet government is alluded to as "the Party" and Nazi Germany is alluded to as "the Dictatorship." Joseph Stalin, a terrorizing dictator, is represented by "Number One." The novel is a strong and moving picture of a Communist revolutionary caught up in the terror

How can day exist without night; how can night exist without darkness? In Paul Bogard’s, “Let There Be Dark”, Bogard elucidates on the absence of darkness in today’s world. With authenticity, Bogard analyzes the significant elements of darkness in both a rational and factual way. In “Let There Be Dark”, Bogard creates a refined and persuasive analysis using rhetorical appeals to endorse his ideology on preserving Earth’s natural darkness.

Instead, the representation or allusion of the NightFall is interpreted as two separate meanings by two separate groups of people who have a disconnect towards one another’s set of values and beliefs. When essentialized into two main ideological worldviews, science versus religion. Both with the goal of comprehending life itself, in this case the end of life. This short story in a way exposes the actuality and purpose for both science and religion, giving us answers to what we cannot explain or understand by mere knowledge or common sense. This can be illustrated by the fact that in the end both separate groups are lead to the same conclusion, which is that the darkness will drive everyone

When children think of darkness they think of lack of light which causes them to become scared. As we grow older, we begin to not only realize the lack of light, but the objects inside the dark which can be more frightening. We start understanding how darkness makes us feel. Darkness makes one think of unusual scenarios that are not real, but seems so real at that moment. Once we start believing in those scenarios, they start to overcome us and we no longer stay ourselves. There are multiple definitions of darkness and they all go with these two authentic stories, Heart of Darkness and The Dead. In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, darkness is defined as: partial or total absence of light, wickedness or evil, unhappiness, secrecy and lack of spiritual or intellectual enlighten. Comparing, Heart of Darkness written by Joseph Conrad and The Dead written by James Joyce, each author brings out darkness and the living dead into the main character and shows how much it changes them for the worse and/or for the better.

Elie Wiesel writes a powerful and moving novel titled “Night” detailing his journey throughout what we now know today as the Holocaust while also bringing in elements of symbolism and imagery to strengthen the novel and deliver a story that is not only incredible but impactful as well. Throughout the book Elie slowly begins to lose his faith, his father, and his dignity which is shown through the symbol of night. "We were given no food. We lived on snow; it took place of the bread. The days were like nights, and the nights left the dregs of their darkness in our souls"(Wiesel 94).” In this quote Elie states what the nights would bring to the Jews which is darkness. This reveals his feelings of being alone with no God and the dark of night that

In the solitude of pitch-black infinite space, “men forgot their passions”-all values were lost, hopes and goals were put on hold, and only darkness existed. A world living in darkness was forced to displace its

Although a few people are comfortable in the dark most people visit the dark in a place of fear. The biggest fear is fear of the unknown