The Dark Night Of The Soul Richard E. Miller Analysis

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Easy A An author, the executive director of the Plangere Writing Center, and an English professor, Richard E. Miller, writes a literature piece called, “The Dark Night of the Soul.” He discusses the true meaning behind reading and writing, and the correct way of how it should be used. He relates his standpoints to real life scenarios, such as the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. How technology today has influenced the two boys, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, and how unbelievable it is that these two teenagers could mastermind a whole scheme, and kill 15 people, have a cache of weapons, and posses a homemade bomb. Miller discusses the dark life behind people, and how they choose to express themselves through literacy. Miller also uses…show more content…
He survived for so long out in the wild, because of his manner of relying on literature, and reads things that are eatable and so on. Miller's main point is that relying on the mentality instead of physicality, it can bring on a journey to find one's self. There are a variety of stories and movies that can be used to relate to what Miller means, and what literature arts are truly good for. Harken2 For example, the movie, “Easy A”, was filmed based upon the classic novel, “The Scarlet Letter”, which was about a woman, Hester Prynne, that had committed unfaithful acts, and had soon conceived a baby. Hester was then forced to wear an “A” on her clothes which stood for Adultery. Easy A had a much different twist than the real scarlet letter though. High school student, Olive Penderghast, was not well known around school. In fact, she was socially alienated. When her best friend asked her what she had done that weekend, Olive quick came up with a lie to make her life sound more interesting. Her exaggerated story about her losing her virginity to a college guy had spread like wild fire around school, making her the topic of everyone's…show more content…
Art tends to links human beings to each other, which gives us the ability to share other peoples perceptions, emotions, and experiences. In Easy A, the historical figure of the Scarlet Letter is tied together with Olive's actions. She decides to wear an A on her chest to make a social statement. Olive expresses herself in a creative way, having the attitude that if she's going to get called a slut, she might as well act/become the part, even if that's not really what she is. Relating back to Nathaniel Hawthorne's literature with the movie, it makes it clear that a person's self-dignity can very much be influenced by their own community and the impact of a society's codes and values upon its members create a life style that is “expected” by the public. Miller talks about a darkness within literature. The darkness throughout this context is a symbol of reality and truth. Olive has to separate her reality with a fantasy, which causes a dilemma of her forgetting what is really important, and later on has to tell everyone the truth so she doesn't have to live in a lie anymore. It's kind of like a good vs. evil thing, for every good there's a bad, and for every bad, there's a good. In other words, Olive was lying about sleeping with these guys so that they can have the confidence around school, while on the other hand, these boys were loving the attention so much,

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