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Marissa Smith
Mrs. Cramer
College Comp. Period 1
3 Jan. 2017
Literary Criticism Essay
This essay is going to be about the Prompt adapted from Paul Bogard, "Let There Be
Dark" and how Bogard builds an argument to persuade his audience, not if all agrees with
Bogard's claim. Paul Bogard's claim is that natural darkness should be preserved. In this essay
response there are going to be pointing out many examples from the Prompt. Such as; the fake
street lights, animals and or species, and people and our bodies and human health. Read on to
find out more.
First, in the paragraph 7 the author Paul Bogard persuaded his audience by writing about
Paris and pointing out the obvious. Bogard said, "Even Paris, the famed "City of Light" which
already turns off its monument lighting after 1am, will this summer start to require its shops,
offices, and public buildings to turn off lights after 2 am. Though primarily designed to save
energy such as reductions in light will also go far in addressing light pollution." This relates to
Bogard's claim because its preserving Paris's energy, money. And electricity. What Bogard said
in his Prompt shows a real example of preserving electricity and being natural. The quote above
helps build the author's argument because it shows others noticing the lights, and power is too
much.
Second, paragraph 4 presents about the animals, and species that need the darkness.
Bogard had said "-the 400 species of birds that migrate at night in North America, the Sea Turtles

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that come ashore to lay their eggs- and some are not such as bats that save American farmers
billions in pest control and the moths that pollinate 80 percent of the world's Flora." Bogard had
also said, "Ecological light population is like the bulldozer of the night wrecking habitat and
disturbing ecosystems several billion years in the making. Simply put, without darkness, Earths
ecology would and collapse." Their would be more extinction if their was only light and not
enough dark. Achieving this effect would help because no one wants to intentionally hurt
something so innocent.
Lastly, paragraph three talks about how Mr. Bogard says its our bodies and health that
need the light. Bogard says in the Prompt that, "Our bodies need darkness to produce the
hormone melatonin, which keeps certain cancers from developing, and our bodies need darkness
for sleep." Also " Sleep disorders have been linked to diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease,
and depression and recent suggests one main cause of "short sleep" is "long light"." This relates
to Bogards claim because we will get cancer and die, and or have many problems with no
darkness. Bogard got the attention of his readers when he said we could develop many problems.
This doesnt really help build the author's argument, because then we couldnt see for ourselves
what would happen with too much, or only light. We are stubborn human beings.
In conclusion, the author Paul Bogard's purpose for writing the Prompt is to keep the
lights off! Bogard argues about how bad things get with not enough night or darkness. The
author built his argument by using facts and using feeling in his prompt about street lights, Paris,
and our health and animals.