Dark Night of the Soul Summary
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 relationships that the stories share are not revealed until the last page of the essay. The essay begins with the story of two distraught high scholars named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In this story Miller really shows us the power of imagination. The boys felt like they were left behind and couldn’t find a connection in their local high school. This feeling of being lonely drove them to the point of becoming violent.
They got back at those people who they felt failed them by stepping into school one morning equipped with automatic guns. The boys went on a rampage. Miller also uses the example of Chris McCandless to further prove his point. McCandless threw away his life and went out on a journey to live by himself in the wilderness because of the stories he read. “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer, becomes his survival guide for his trip into the mountains of Alaska. McCandless shows the reader the power that the book had on his imagination.
The trip was cut short due to McCandless’ over confidence in Krakauer’s experience in living in Alaska. Stories can control our imagination which can control people’s mind, but writing can help make since of what humans can’t process in the mind. Miller shows us how writing can help people sort out their thoughts with the hope of better understanding the problem or the solution. Thus he tells the story of Descartes. Descartes was a man going through what modern society calls, “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 “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 the purpose both serve make The Dark Night of the soul a piece of writing that any fans of literature enjoy. A true modern day classic.
