Dark Night of the Soul Summary Essay - 672 Words

Michael Lanyon Eric Rupert Writing 121 14 October 2011 The Dark Night of the soul summary 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†¦show more content†¦Thus he tells the story of Descartes. Descartes was a man going through what modern society calls, â€Å"a mid life crisis.† He was middle aged when felt like he had lost who he was. To remedy his crisis he locks himself in his house in the dark for six days. Here he breaks down his thinking process as well as his feelings and digests the facts. After solving his problem he comes out and writes â€Å"Meditations on First Philosophy.† Through the act of writing he resolves his problems and, gives his answers to the world. This is much like Mary Karr who in his final story solves her problems with her mom through writing a story. Mary lives a rough childhood where she is almost killed by her mom and accidently flown to Mexico all by the age of ten. Mary forgives and forgets the wrong her mother commits. Then many years later when her father’s health begins to decline she finds evidence of her mother’s evil past. Her mother hides her past because of fear of being rejected by her daughter and society. By writing the story Mary is able to put together her fragmented history, and learn who she really is. Miller writes the story in a very unique way. He gives his readers a chance to explore the words written on his pages, with the hope that the reader is able to draw their own conclusions from his work. His unparalleled approach to the essay forces the reader to use critical thinking in order to make since of the essay. Miller’s feelings about reading, writing and theShow MoreRelatedThe Dark Night of the Soul Essay932 Words   |  4 Pagesby Amber Kramer Summary Essay: The Dark Night of the Soul Richard E. Miller essay â€Å"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. 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