When looking up to the night sky in today’s world, the Milky Way does not appear in sight. Instead, a blanket shrouds the night sky. In Let There Be Dark, Paul Bogard builds an argument in order to persuade his audience that natural darkness is essential to everyday life. He builds his argument that natural darkness should be preserved by using evidence, reasoning, and stylistic or persuasive elements.
Bogard uses evidence to argue his point as he says that “in the United States and Western Europe the amount of light in the sky increases an average of about 6% per year.” This decrease in darkness, as the World Health Organization says, causes cancer, as natural light helps people’s bodies because “bodies need darkness to produce the hormone melatonin, which keeps certain cancers from developing.” In order to diminish this, Bogard explains that the American Medical Association supports for “light pollution reduction efforts and glare reduction efforts at both the national and state levels.” Another piece of evidence that Bogard uses is that without darkness America’s farer would loose billions in dollars if the bats did not come out at night to feed on the pests.
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Also, earth’s flora would diminish as without darkness, the moths would not pollinate the plants. These facts and examples that Paul Bogard uses helps to explain the factual side of the result of unnatural light and a lack of darkness and builds his argument that darkness should be preserved. Not only does Bogard use evidence, but he also uses reasoning to develop ideas and to connect claims and evidence.
He claims that “our bodies need darkness for sleep,” and backs this argument up by saying that a lack of darkness causes sleep disorders, as people are unable to sleep. He then explains that “sleep disorders have been linked to diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and depression. Because of this, “there isn’t a place for this much artificial light in our lives.” Bogard also links unnatural light to wasting money, as much of the light in the night sky “is wasted energy, which means wasted dollars.” This reason appeals to readers as no one wishes to waste energy or money, as almost everyone is taught from a very young age not to leave lights on or waste money on unneeded
items. Also, Bogard uses stylistic and persuasive elements to add power to the ideas expressed. For example, he begins his writing with a personal experience that almost everyone else has experienced. He explains how when he was younger, he used to spend time at his family’s cabin on a Minnesota Lake, where he could see the Milky Wave in the night sky. However, once he grew up, the darkness that used to blanket that lake has diminished. Bogard also uses word choice to appeal to emotion. He uses words including: irreplaceable, bulldozer, wrecking, disrupting, and invaluable. These words stir up emotion in the reader which causes them to join Bogard’s cause for a dark night. Therefore, John Bogard builds his argument by using evidence, reasoning, and stylistic or persuasive elements. All of these together form his argument and provide a solid passage that throughly convinces the reader that darkness should be preserved. At the end he explains measures that can be taken to preserve darkness. One example he gives is using LED lights for street lights, as this “offer[s] dramatic possibilities for controlling wasted light. He also says that by turning lights off in the early morning hours, when no one is using them, preserves energy and diminishes light pollution. In his closing remarks, Bogard appeals to a sense of caring for the world, which all humans possess, by saying that without becoming aware of the value and beauty of darkness the problem of light pollution will never be truly addressed.
Kurtz is Marlow’s princess: his damsel in distress. A statement as such may seem out of place for a novella about a man sharing his experience about a trip he took up the Congo River. However, in Thomas Foster’s How To Read Literature Like A Professor, the concept of Heart of Darkness serving a quest story is likely. It applies to Fosters checklist of having: “(a) a quester, (b) a place to go, (c) a stated reason to go there, (d) challenges and trials en route, and (e) the real reason to go there”. Aside from gender role confusion, Kurtz can serve as Marlow’s seeked upon princess present in a standard quest story.
In this passage, an excerpt from Anthony Doerr’s novel, All the Light We Cannot See, Doerr depicts Werner, an orphan German boy, visiting Frederick’s house, whom he had met in Schulpforta, an elite Nazi academy. Through the experiences Werner has with Frederick’s family in Berlin, Doerr emphasizes Werner’s discomfort towards Frederick’s relationship with his mother to convey the corrupt nature of parental love may harm the child.
As society continuously expands, building new structures, light pollution becomes increasingly problematic. Paul Bogard addresses this problem and argues against the increasing light pollution in his writing, “Let There Be Dark.” Through his use of the ethos and pathos, Bogard attempts to persuade his audience of the beauty of natural darkness.
The author then uses darkness to describe the faces of the adults on Sunday evenings after dinner when everyone is relaxing with their own thought's. "For a moment nobody's talking but every face looks darkening, like the sky outside...The silence, the darkness coming and the darkness in the faces frighten the child obscurel...
Ralph heard the night watchman call lights out. The moon gleaming in the window was the only source of light within Ralph’s room now. Even in the dim light he could make out the sink and toilet. The room was padded, and the door had a glass window that reflected fluorescent light into the room. The combination of the artificial and natural light created a faint glimmer upon the mirror that hung above the sink.
Since the beginning of time, human beings were trying to find ways how to make their lives better. Technological improvements and inventions brought us a lot of benefits, but with benefits come consequences. Side effects are different types of pollution that we , as humans, are aware of. There are six kinds of pollution: land, water, noise, thermal, air, and light. The article "Our Vanishing Night," by Verlyn Klikenborg shows us the consequences of light pollution and completely neglects the positive aspects of artificial light. The author starts with a history lesson where he juxtaposes modern world to England in 1800. Back in the day, the most populated city in England, London, didn't suffer from light pollution since there
Analysis of 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night by Simon and Garfunkel In expressive arts we are studing the topics the 60’s. We listened to the song “7 O'clock News/Silent Night” Simon and Garfunkel. In 1956, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were juniors at Forest Hills High School in New York City. They began playing together as a group called Tom and Jerry, with Simon as Jerry Landis and Garfunkel as Tom Graph, so called because he always liked to track hits on the pop charts.
... middle of paper ... ... Its unfortunate the average person is blind to many discoveries that surround them or right in front of them. In Annie Dillard’s words, “Everywhere darkness and the presence of the unseen appalls.we rock, cradled in the swaddling band of darkness.
To get the audience engaged, Bogard uses very detailed statistics and facts to help convince the audience that the world contains all species that rely on all types of darkness. Bogard then goes on to list the different species of animals they rely the most on darkness, making the reader consider their involvement in artificial light. In this section of article, Bogard also talks about how “Ecological light pollution is like the bulldozer of the night, wrecking habitat and disrupting ecosystems several billion years in the making”. When using this sentence, Bogard really wants the reader to reconsider their use of artificial light and he also wants them to feel guilt for greatly affecting the environment in a negative way. Adding on to that, Bogard then goes on to state that “without darkness, Earth’s ecology would collapse” to brutally play with the audience’s emotion and
A. The "Night." The "Sun." World Views Classic and Contemporary Readings. Sixth ed.
In Lord of the Flies, there’s a good amount of imagery that shows the darkness and the lightness. The dark and light in Lord of the Flies is repeatedly used over and over to show the bad and good side of a specific person or thing. Jack’s mask shows a feature of dark and light imagery. When Jack creates his mask, he covers half of his face with red clay and the other half of his face with white clay. “...slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw” (Golding 63). This shows how half of Jack’s personality is on the “dark” or “evil” side while the other half is on the “light or “good” side. Also, when Jack calls Roger over to see the mask Roger saw darkness. “…opened his eyes and saw him a darker shadow crept beneath the
The reading “Stranger Than True” by Barry Winston is not familiar to me, yet an intriguing and fascinating story. The principal point of the writer, who specializes in criminal law tried to convey was that everything isn't so black and white. Everybody is honest until demonstrated blameworthy despite all proof points against them.
“The sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light” (Conrad 2). By using wording such as “benign” and “unstained”, it paints a picture in one’s mind of a kindly, pure environment. Since the story begins here, it seems as though the tale has begun in the light, and accordingly, honesty, and as the day progresses will descend into darkness and thus falsehood. As Marlow begins to speak, he contemplates the history of the land around him. “Light came out of this river since-you say knights? Yes; but it is like a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker-may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday” (Conrad 3). He speaks of our world as a “flicker”, a twinkle in the “darkness” that was present before our civilization arose. T...
When was the last time you really looked up at the stars? Have you forgotten they were there, or has light pollution blinded us? This is a problem that has been going on for a while now, and its getting worse. People only hear about the major pollutions, like water and air. They do not realize or never heard about light pollution and its effect on the planet. The media only talk about how global warming is killing our animals, but do not talk about how light pollution is killing us. “Our Vanishing Night”, written by Verlyn Klinkenborg, a graduate from Pomona College with a PhD from Princeton University, explains how light pollution is effecting worldwide. “News’n’More”, “O Stars, Where Are You? , is and article which agrees with Klinkenborg. Both articles agree the light pollution is effecting our environment and harming our beloved species.
In the daytime, the sun illuminates the world, drawing everything into plain sight; in the nighttime however, the moon provides only a faint glow, allowing the world to be obscured and thrust into shadows and darkness. The fundamental fear of the dark is one of the reasons we behave so cautiously during the night. As juveniles, people are taught to fear the night and trust the day; they are told folklore about “the Boogey Man” and other unpleasant creatures that “go bump in the night”, and only in the night. The folklores were told to protect them because it is actually more dangerous during the dark hours of twilight. Many crimes occur during the day; however more crimes occur during the night because there are more places to hide and less people to witness these evil ...