Summary Analysis Essay Assignment

Nico Pozsar

Jill Darling

Writing 100

Summary Analysis Essay Assignment

Henry Miller writes in his Reflections on Writing how he learned to write. He eventually learned how writing is life, and that failures in one’s life can be directly tied to failures in one’s writing. This led him to the belief that writing was his destiny. One can define destiny as what one is “meant” to do, and that one will always be lost if they are not doing what they are “meant” to do; this idea ties happiness and destiny together. I would say that what Miller actually means is that each individual must find her/ his own destiny by living their life (Miller).

He began writing early on while living in New York City, but with limited success with his careers and two failed marriages, he moved to Paris to try to pursue writing full time. While in Paris he lived in relative desolation and often extreme poverty, which in large part motivated some of his greatest early works (“Henry Valentine”). He began by “assiduously examining the style and technique of those I once admired and worshiped: Nietzsche, Dostoievski…whom I today discard as being a skillful fabricator, a brick-maker…” (Miller 20). Analyzing other authors work is a very common practice by aspiring authors to learn how to write, or to imitate a style of a more established author. Some devote their entire lives to analyzing works of other writers. However, Miller found this of no avail, hence his discarding of the great authors who once influenced him.  He finally “came to a dead end” (Miller 20) and he realized that “to fail as a writer meant to fail as a man. And I failed.” (Miller 20). Note first his use of syntax. By adding an addition period between “fail as a man” and “And I failed” he emphasizes the “And I failed” by creating an abrupt pause directly before reading the words. Hence, he needed to fail before going on to write authentically and meaningfully. Note also his formation of a connection between writing and life, that to write was to be a man, and to fail, was hence to fail as a man.

Miller continues: “I began in absolute chaos and darkness, in a bog or swamp of ideas and emotions and experiences” (19 Miller) before eventually realizing that he has not been writing in the correct way. Note how invokes metaphor to create an image for readers. He uses “chaos and darkness” perhaps as a biblical allusion to the disorder before God created the Earth in the book of Genesis: the idea that in imitating God as God creates, so the writer must write, to create from nothing but chaos and darkness. By writing “a bog or swamp of ideas and emotions” (19 Miller) he creates an image of naturally disorganized ideas in a mush, jumbled together, to be skillfully placed together by an expert author. After the “chaos” of ideas, he “had to arrive at the brink and take a leap into the dark” (Miller). He again invokes metaphor to create an image of his experience of taking a risk writing and not knowing what to expect. His diction with the word “brink” and “leap into the dark” help illustrate his failure. As brink tends to describe the strip of land before a vertical slope, he also subtly implies that it takes a great deal of courage to write authentically. Fortunately, he decides to jump in with “two feet into the world of aesthetics” (Miller). With his choice of the word “jump” he continues the metaphor which implies that to write, it takes courage to jump off a sort of brink. This statement of his jumping with “two feet” into the abyss illustrates his struggle and eventual success to write authentically. He goes on: “Whatever I do is done out of sheer joy: I drop my fruits like a ripe tree” (Miller), again invoking metaphor to describe how natural the process of writing has become to him, like how naturally fruits come to a tree. The fact that the writing process is so natural to him shows the point that it has become his destiny.

Henry Miller lays out above how he came to learn how one writes authentically, how writing was life, and how writing is his true destiny as a man. I feel he goes on to encourage people to find their own destinies by living life. Miller writes: “Paradise is everywhere and every road, if one continues on it far enough, leads to it” (Miller).  And even goes so far as to say that “the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it lead him” (Miller).  The first quote lays out his belief for mankind, that no matter what anyone does, that paradise, that destiny “is everywhere and every road, if ones continues on it far enough” (Miller). The second quote implies that one should only judge their actions in terms of following the path that one is meant to follow. Taken to an extreme hypothetical, this could justify murder or genocide if that is one’s “destiny”, though he would probably argue in these cases that no action like that could ever be one’s destiny. His diction of “paradise” is interesting as various religions often describe heaven as “paradise”. For example, when a crucified Jesus tells the criminal next to him: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" (New International Version, Luke 23:39-43).  Furthermore he invokes a metaphor by comparing life to a road which one travels. By using this metaphor, he argues that your destiny is inevitable if one travels down the road long enough, or just lives and makes decisions long enough (Miller). That it is not only your destiny, but paradise that awaits if one stays on the road (Miller).

            Henry Miller believes his destiny is to write, and that each individual should find their own by living life. Our brains come up with incredibly elaborate excuses for why we cannot accomplish what we want, why we cannot do what we love. These excuses, as well founded as they may seem, are not but an elaborate defense mechanism created by one’s brain so that one does not change. I say that one can and should change, and the only one stopping you from pursuing what you love is yourself.

"Henry Valentine Miller." Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. < http://www.biography.com/people/henry-miller-9408455#synopsis>

Miller, Henry. “Reflections on Writing.” N.p, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. < https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BysebiKtvtnWMjg3MTJkNGItNDNjMy00YWFmLTllMTQtNjVhMmI2ZDU0NTE5/edit>

 “2. This Day You Will be with Me in Paradise.” Jesus Walk, Bible Study Series. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2014 <http://www.jesuswalk.com/7-last-words/2_paradise.htm>
Reflection: I really like the message of the essay, which can be summed up in the words "you do you". It provides little heed to the societal effects of everyone living for themselves, but is a comforting idea. I respond to the prompt well by breaking down what I think Miller, whose prose is incredibly dense, is saying. 
If I were to complete this work again, I would attempt to infuse the work with more humor. It's rather boring and dry as it is. That might be fine for academic writing, but I don't like it very much. Without the comforting message, if the message had been about the voter turn out in the 2006 midterm election, it would have been a very boring essay. So, if I had to write it again, I would try to make it more fun to read.