essay deeper meaning

Developing Deeper Analysis & Insights

Analysis is a central writing skill in academic writing. Essentially, analysis is what writers do with evidence to make meaning of it. While there are specific disciplinary types of analysis (e.g., rhetorical, discourse, close reading, etc.), most analysis involves zooming into evidence to understand how the specific parts work and how their specific function might relate to a larger whole. That is, we usually need to zoom into the details and then reflect on the larger picture. In this writing guide, we cover analysis basics briefly and then offer some strategies for deepening your analysis. Deepening your analysis means pushing your thinking further, developing a more insightful and interesting answer to the “so what?” question, and elevating your writing.

Analysis Basics

Questions to Ask of the Text:

• Is the evidence fully explained and contextualized? Where in the text/story does this evidence come from (briefly)? What do you think the literal meaning of the quote/evidence is and why? Why did you select this particular evidence?
• Are you selecting a long enough quote to work with and analyze? While over-quoting can be a problem, so too can under-quoting.
• Do you connect each piece of evidence explicitly to the claim or focus of the paper?

Strategies & Explanation

• Sometimes turning the focus of the paper into a question can really help someone to figure out how to work with evidence. All evidence should answer the question--the work of analysis is explaining how it answers the question.
• The goal of evidence in analytical writing is not just to prove that X exists or is true, but rather to show something interesting about it--to push ideas forward, to offer insights about a quote. To do this, sometimes having a full sentence for a quote helps--if a writer is only using single-word quotes, for example, they may struggle to make meaning out of it.

Deepening Analysis

Not all of these strategies work every time, but usually employing one of them is enough to really help elevate the ideas and intellectual work of a paper:

• Bring the very best point in each paragraph into the topic sentence. Often these sentences are at the very end of a paragraph in a solid draft. When you bring it to the front of the paragraph, you then need to read the paragraph with the new topic sentence and reflect on: what else can we say about this evidence? What else can it show us about your claim?
• Complicate the point by adding contrasting information, a different perspective, or by naming something that doesn’t fit. Often we’re taught that evidence needs to prove our thesis. But, richer ideas emerge from conflict, from difference, from complications. In a compare and contrast essay, this point is very easy to see--we get somewhere further when we consider how two things are different. In an analysis of a single text, we might look at a single piece of evidence and consider: how could this choice the writer made here be different? What other choices could the writer have made and why didn’t they? Sometimes naming what isn’t in the text can help emphasize the importance of a particular choice.
• Shift the focus question of the essay and ask the new question of each piece of evidence. For example, a student is looking at examples of language discrimination (their evidence) in order to make an argument that answers the question: what is language discrimination? Questions that are definitional (what is X? How does Y work? What is the problem here?) can make deeper analysis challenging. It’s tempting to simply say the equivalent of “Here is another example of language discrimination.” However, a strategy to help with this is to shift the question a little bit. So perhaps the paragraphs start by naming different instances of language discrimination, but the analysis then tackles questions like: what are the effects of language discrimination? Why is language discrimination so problematic in these cases? Who perpetuates language discrimination and how? In a paper like this, it’s unlikely you can answer all of those questions--but, selecting ONE shifted version of a question that each paragraph can answer, too, helps deepen the analysis and keeps the essay focused.
• Examine perspective--both the writer’s and those of others involved with the issue. You might reflect on your own perspectives as a unique audience/reader. For example, what is illuminated when you read this essay as an engineer? As a person of color? As a first-generation student at Cornell? As an economically privileged person? As a deeply religious Christian? In order to add perspective into the analysis, the writer has to name these perspectives with phrases like: As a religious undergraduate student, I understand X to mean… And then, try to explain how the specificity of your perspective illuminates a different reading or understanding of a term, point, or evidence. You can do this same move by reflecting on who the intended audience of a text is versus who else might be reading it--how does it affect different audiences differently? Might that be relevant to the analysis?
• Qualify claims and/or acknowledge limitations. Before college level writing and often in the media, there is a belief that qualifications and/or acknowledging the limitations of a point adds weakness to an argument. However, this actually adds depth, honesty, and nuance to ideas. It allows you to develop more thoughtful and more accurate ideas. The questions to ask to help foster this include: Is this always true? When is it not true? What else might complicate what you’ve said? Can we add nuance to this idea to make it more accurate? Qualifications involve words like: sometimes, may effect, often, in some cases, etc. These terms are not weak or to be avoided, they actually add accuracy and nuance.

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Choosing the right evidence can be crucial to proving your argument, but your analysis of that evidence is equally important. Even when it seems like evidence may speak for itself, a reader needs to understand how the evidence connects to your argument. In addition, because analysis requires you to think critically and deeply about your evidence, it can improve your main argument by making it more specific and complex.

General Considerations

What Analysis Does: Breaks a work down to examine its various parts in close detail in order to see the work in a new light.

What an Analysis Essay Does: Chooses selective pieces of evidence and analysis in order to arrive at one single, complex argument that makes a claim about the deeper meaning behind the piece being analyzed. In the essay, each piece of evidence selected is paired with deep analysis that builds or elaborates on the last until the thesis idea is reached.

Analysis should be present in all essays. Wherever evidence is incorporated, analysis should be used to connect ideas back to your main argument.

In Practice

Answer Questions that Explain and Expand on the Evidence

Asking the kinds of questions that will lead to critical thought can access good analysis more easily. Such questions often anticipate what a reader might want to know as well. Questions can take the form of explaining the evidence or expanding on evidence; in other words, questions can give context or add meaning. Asking both kinds of questions is crucial to creating strong analysis.

When using evidence, ask yourself questions about context:

• What do I need to tell my audience about where this evidence came from?
• Is there a story behind this evidence?
• What is the historical situation in which this evidence was created?

Also ask yourself what the evidence implies about your argument:

• What aspects of this evidence would I like my audience to notice?
• Why did I choose this particular piece of evidence?
• Why does this evidence matter to my argument?
• Why is this evidence important in some ways, but not in others?
• How does this evidence contradict or confirm my argument? Does it do both?
• How does this evidence evolve or change my argument?

Example: “There’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win,” stated Paul Watson at an Animal Rights Convention.

Argument: Violent action is justified in order to protect animal rights.

Questions that explain the evidence: What did Watson mean by this statement? What else did he say in this speech that might give more context to this quote? What should the reader pay attention to here (for example, why is the word “terrorist” here especially important)?

Questions that expand on evidence: Why is this quote useful or not useful to the argument? How does Watson’s perspective help prove or disapprove the argument? How do you think the reader should interpret the word “terrorist”? Why should the reader take this quote seriously? How does this evidence evolve or complicate the argument—does what Watson said make the argument seem too biased or simple if activism can be related to terrorism?

Be Explicit

Because there may be multiple ways to interpret a piece of evidence, all evidence needs to be connected explicitly to your argument, even if the meaning of the evidence seems obvious to you. Plan on following any piece of evidence with, at the very least, one or two sentences of your honest interpretation of how the evidence connects to your argument—more if the evidence is significant.

Example: Paul Watson, a controversial animal rights activist, started his speech at the Animal Rights Convention with a provocative statement: “There’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win.” His use of the word ‘terrorist’ refers to aggressive actions taken by animal rights groups, including Sea Shepard, under the guise of protecting animals. While his quote might simply be intended to shock his audience, by comparing animal activism to terrorism, he mocks the fight against international terrorism.

Allow Analysis to Question the Argument

Sometimes frustrations with analysis can come from working with an argument that is too broad or too simple. The purpose of analysis is not only to show how evidence proves your argument, but also to discover the complexity of the argument. While answering questions that lead to analysis, if you come across something that contradicts the argument, allow your critical thinking to refine the argument.

Example: If one examined some more evidence about animal activism and it became clear that violence is sometimes the most effective measure, the argument could be modified. The more complex argument might be: “Violent action by animal activists might be akin to “terrorism” and deemed unacceptable, but it does make more of an immediate impact and gets more press. Without such aggressive actions, animal rights might be seen in a better light.”

Avoid Patterns of Weak or Empty Analysis

Sometimes sentences fill the space of analysis, but don’t actually answer questions about why and how the evidence connects to or evolves the argument. These moments of weak analysis negatively affect a writer’s credibility. The following are some patterns often found in passages of weak or empty analysis.

1. Offers a new fact or piece of evidence in place of analysis. Though it is possible to offer two pieces of evidence together and analyze them in relation to each other, simply offering another piece of evidence as a stand in for analysis weakens the argument. Telling the reader what happens next or another new fact is not analysis.

Example: “There’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win,” stated Paul Watson at an Animal Rights Convention. According to PETA, hunting is no longer needed for sustenance as it once was and it now constitutes violent aggression.

2. Uses an overly biased tone or restates claim rather than analyzing. Phrases such as “this is ridiculous” or “everyone can agree that this proves (fill in thesis here)” prevent the reader from seeing the subtle significance of the evidence you have chosen and often make a reader feel the writing is too biased.

Example: According to PETA, The Jane Goodall Institute estimates that 5,000 chimpanzees are killed by poachers annually. This ridiculous number proves that violence against animals justifies violent activist behavior.

3. Dismisses the relevance of the evidence. Bringing up a strong point and then shifting away from it rather than analyzing it can make evidence seem irrelevant. Statements such as “regardless of this evidence” or “nevertheless, we can still argue” before analyzing evidence can diminish the evidence all together.

Example: Paul Watson was expelled from the leadership of Greenpeace. Nevertheless, his vision of activism should be commended.

4. Strains logic or creates a generalization to arrive at the desired argument. Making evidence suit your needs rather than engaging in honest critical thinking can create fallacies in the argument and lower your credibility. It might also make the argument confusing.

Example: Some companies are taking part in the use of alternatives to animal testing. But some companies does not mean all and the ones who aren’t taking part are what gives animal activists the right to take drastic action.

5. Offers advice or a solution without first providing analysis. Telling a reader what should be done can be fine, but first explain how the evidence allows you to arrive at that conclusion.

Example: Greenpeace states that they attempt to save whales by putting themselves between the whaling ship and the whale, and they have been successful at gaining media support, but anyone who is a true activist needs to go further and put whalers at risk.

For the following pairings of evidence and analysis, identify what evasive moves are being made and come up with a precise question that would lead to better analysis. Imagine your working thesis is as follows: Message communications came to life in order to bring people closer together, to make it easier to stay connected and in some instances they have. More often however, these forms of communication seem to be pushing people apart because they are less personal.

1. An article in USA Today last year had the headline, “Can Love Blossom in a Text Message?” I’m sure most people’s gut reaction would be a resounding, “Of course not!” The article discusses a young woman whose boyfriend told her he loved her for the first time in a text message. Messaging is clearly pushing people apart.

2. In fact in the United States today, there are an estimated 250,146,921 wireless subscribers. Evidence shows that a person is more likely to first establish communication with someone you are interested in via text message or a form of online messaging via Facebook, Myspace, email, or instant messenger. People find these means of communication less stressful. This is because they are less personal.

3. This way of communicating is very new, with text message popularity skyrocketing within only the last five years, the invention of instant messaging gaining popular use through AOL beginning in 1998, and websites such as Myspace and Facebook invading our computers within only the last 5 years. Regardless of this change in communication technology, these forms of communication do not bring people together.

4. The way some people wish others “Happy Birthday” is another example. On birthdays, if you are on Facebook, your wall becomes flooded with happy birthday wishes, which is nice. However, if one of your close friends or perhaps a sibling simply wishes you a happy birthday on Facebook, you probably will feel a little cheated. It is important to know where you stand in your relationships, and if the person is actually important to you, you should take the time to call them in this kind of situation.

5. Studies suggest that over 90% of the meaning we derive from communication, we derive from the non-verbal cues. These nonverbal cues include body language, facial expression, eye movement and contact, posture, gestures, use of touch (such as hug or handshake), vocal intonation, rate of speech, and the information we gather from appearance (Applebaum, 108). It’s terrible to think that such important things are said with only a mere 10% of their meaning being properly conveyed. Phone calls can eliminate some of these problems.

6. Many people now have “Top Friends” on their Facebook profile where they rank their friends in order of importance. Sure most of us have a couple people who we refer to as our “best friends,” but never before this online ranking phenomenon has the order in which you rank your friends been public knowledge. This shows that friendship has lost all meaning.

1. argues with tone and uses a generalization 2. introduces new evidence and uses generalizations 3. dismisses evidence 4. offers advice or a solution and dismisses evidence 5. argues with tone and offers advice 6. uses a generalization

Resources: http://www.peta.org/mc/facts.asp http://www.greenpeace.org/international/about/history/paul-watson/

Last updated June 2011

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Building Strong Reading Skills

Discover What a Text is Trying to Say

All texts—whether fiction or nonfiction—carry layers of information, built one on top of the other. As we read, we peel those back—like layers in an onion—and uncover deeper meanings.

Take a look at Figure 1 to the right. I use this in the classroom to explain the “deeper meaning” concept to students. All texts and stories have surface meaning. In the sketch, this is represented by all the things we see above ground: the tree, the house, and the box (A), along with whatever is in it—even though the box may be closed, anyone who walks by can see it and explore it. These items are concrete and obvious. In “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” for example, the surface story is about a little girl who goes for a walk in the forest, wanders into the bears’ home, gets into their belongings, and is frightened off.

But stories and essays also have deeper, hidden meanings. In Figure 1, there’s a buried treasure chest (B) deep underground, waiting to be discovered and opened. Texts are much the same—they each contain obvious, surface level meanings, and they each contain a buried prize as well. What’s the deeper meaning in “Goldilocks”? Most fables and fairy tales were designed to teach, warn, or scare. Perhaps the author wants us to think about what happens when we invade people’s privacy. Or maybe it’s about the drawbacks of curiosity. What do you think?

When working with a text, be aware of everything that is happening within it—almost as if you’re watching a juggler with several balls in the air at one time:

• Consider the characters or people featured in the text, their dialog, and how they interact.
• Be aware of the plot’s movement (in a fictional story) or the topic development (in a nonfiction story or essay) and the moments of excitement or conflict as the action rises and falls.
• Look for changes in time—flashbacks, flash-forwards, and dream sequences.
• Watch for themes (ideas that occur, reappear, and carry meaning or a message throughout the piece) or symbols (objects or ideas that stand for or mean something else; these carry meaning that we often understand quickly without thinking about it too much).

Examples of themes : coming of age, redemption, the nature of honesty, conflict, sacrifice.

Examples of symbols : full moon (typically suggests mystery), dark forest (danger or the possibility of being lost), white flag (surrender), a path or road (journey).

As you read, always look for both surface meanings and those buried beneath the surface, like treasure. That’s the fun part of reading—finding those precious hidden bits, waiting to be uncovered and eager to make your reading experience richer and deeper. Even if you just scratch the surface, you’ll learn more.

The Word on College Reading and Writing Copyright © by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Instead of chasing happiness, build deeper meaning into your life

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Fiona Geiran

Sanaz Meshkinpour

Author Emily Esfahani Smith researched psychology, neuroscience and philosophy to understand what makes us happy. She says we should build meaningful lives rather than follow the whims of happiness.

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What are some ways of adding deeper meanings to writing?

I'm working on a book right now, and I want to add something that the reader really has to search for, such as symbolism or motifs. What are some ways to implement those, or such like it, into any type of writing?

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• This is an exceptionally broad question. There are... So many ways. Also, look at allegories –  Featherball Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 5:55
• By 'deeper meanings' did you mean obscure? –  user6035379 Commented Dec 4, 2016 at 18:55
• I mean to have the writing be clear to anyone that reads it, but to also have ideas that reappear, as a way to make a statement. –  Alfred King Commented Jan 22, 2017 at 20:00

3 Answers 3

Oh Dear, no. That is not how it works. You should always make your work as clear to the reader as you possibly can. If your use a symbol or a metaphor, it should be to make your meaning clearer, not more obscure.

Yes, I know that in school your English teacher told you that there were deeper meanings hidden in the text and expressed through metaphors etc. etc. That was bunk. The reason we have to study the metaphors used in the literature of the past is that all stories are told by reference to other stories -- stories the reader knows. When the original author wrote those works, the stories they referred to were familiar to the audience of their day. But those stories are not so familiar to us today, and so we need to study up on those stories in order to understand the reference the author was making to them.

The most frequent and obvious examples of this are biblical allusions. When Shakespeare wrote, his audiences would have been thoroughly familiar with the bible. Most modern audiences are not, and so they need to have the bible stories that Shakespeare refers to explained to them before they can understand his meaning.

It is true that some of the early moderns indulged in highly obscure references that few of their own time would understand. They were rewarded appropriately: very few people read them.

It is also true that some of the things that authors want to say are difficult to express, and that they have to be approached not by simple statements but by the juxtaposition of many ideas and images. We may not all readily understand these ideas because they are inherently difficult to understand, but if the author is any good they have done their very best to make their meaning clear.

So, whatever it is you are trying to say, say is as clearly and as simply as you can. Don't use a metaphor or a symbol unless that metaphor or symbol is the clearest way to accurately express the thing you are trying to say. And if the thing you are trying to say is a simple straightforward thing that you can express in a simple essay, write a simple essay.

• This is a very good advice. What do you think for hidden meanings which rely on the reader to think and are not critical to the understanding but are like additional. For example it is known that Stanley Kubrick put a lot of hidden suggestions. Other aspect is when adding parts of the story which at first sight have no relation to the story but somehow play with the subconscious psychological state of the reader without them realizing. –  Teddy Markov Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 8:13
• 1 Movies are different because movies have a background and a foreground and multiple sensory channels. You can drop an easter egg into the background. A novel presents each word to the user's attention one by one. There is no place to hide anything. But fiction is not about conveying information or making an argument. It is about recreating human experience. It is all about playing with the psychological state of the reader. The effect is hidden only in the sense that to announce the intention to create the effect would be to dull the effect. A story is not an essay. It works differently. –  user16226 Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 12:50
• Of course, every reader will receive the experience differently, despite the author doing everything they can to strike every note of that experience as loudly and clearly as they can. Because the tools by which those notes are struck are references to stories, images, symbols, and experiences, some readers will not receive the full effect because those stories, images, symbols and experiences are not in their repertoire. They are hidden from them by their lack of experience, not the author's attempt to hide them. Education and experience may therefore allow them to enjoy the work more. –  user16226 Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 12:56

You could use symbols and motifs. This sounds very obvious, but like all literary techniques, if done well it works. It could be the use of the colour red. It could be the mention of a poetic work. It could be the constant use of metaphors connected with the sea. Think of the symbols and motifs and then insert them at appropriate places.

The best way to add deep meaning is to make your writing real and relevant. There is no secret element to make your work seem edgy and subtextual. Just make your story brutal and smart. That will give all the meaning you need.

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A Guide to Deep Reading

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Deep reading is the active process of thoughtful and deliberate reading carried out to enhance one's comprehension and enjoyment of a text . Contrast with skimming or superficial reading. Also called slow reading.

The term deep reading was coined by Sven Birkerts in The Gutenberg Elegies (1994): "Reading, because we control it, is adaptable to our needs and rhythms. We are free to indulge our subjective associative impulse; the term I coin for this is deep reading : the slow and meditative possession of a book. We don't just read the words, we dream our lives in their vicinity."

Deep Reading Skills

"By deep reading , we mean the array of sophisticated processes that propel comprehension and that include inferential and deductive reasoning, analogical skills, critical analysis, reflection, and insight. The expert reader needs milliseconds to execute these processes; the young brain needs years to develop them. Both of these pivotal dimensions of time are potentially endangered by the digital culture's pervasive emphases on immediacy, information loading, and a media-driven cognitive set that embraces speed and can discourage deliberation in both our reading and our thinking." (Maryanne Wolf and Mirit Barzillai, "The Importance of Deep Reading." Challenging the Whole Child: Reflections on Best Practices in Learning, Teaching, and Leadership , ed. by Marge Scherer. ASCD, 2009)

"[D]eep reading requires human beings to call upon and develop attentional skills, to be thoughtful and fully aware. . . .Unlike watching television or engaging in the other illusions of entertainment and pseudo-events, deep reading is not an escape , but a discovery . Deep reading provides a way of discovering how we are all connected to the world and to our own evolving stories. Reading deeply, we find our own plots and stories unfolding through the language and voice of others." (Robert P. Waxler and Maureen P. Hall, Transforming Literacy: Changing Lives Through Reading and Writing . Emerald Group, 2011)

Writing and Deep Reading

"Why is marking up a book indispensable to reading? First, it keeps you awake. (And I don't mean merely conscious; I mean  awake .) In the second place, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed." (Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book . Rpt. by Touchstone, 2014)

Deep Reading Strategies

"[Judith] Roberts and [Keith] Roberts [2008] rightly identify students' desire to avoid the deep reading process, which involves substantial time-on-task. When experts read difficult texts, they read slowly and reread often. They struggle with the text to make it comprehensible. They hold confusing passages in mental suspension, having faith that later parts of the text may clarify earlier parts. They 'nutshell' passages as they proceed, often writing gist statements in the margins. They read a difficult text a second and a third time, considering first readings as approximations or rough drafts . They interact with the text by asking questions, expressing disagreements, linking the text with other readings or with personal experience. "But resistance to deep reading may involve more than an unwillingness to spend the time. Students may actually misunderstand the reading process. They may believe that experts are speed readers who don't need to struggle. Therefore students assume that their own reading difficulties must stem from their lack of expertise, which makes the text 'too hard for them.' Consequently, they don't allot the study time needed to read a text deeply." (John C. Bean, Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom , 2nd ed. Jossey-Bass, 2011

Deep Reading and the Brain

"In one fascinating study, conducted at Washington University's Dynamic Cognition Laboratory and published in the journal Psychological Science in 2009, researchers used brain scans to examine what happens inside people's heads as they read fiction. They found that 'readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative . Details about actions and sensation are captured from the text and integrated with personal knowledge from past experiences.' The brain regions that are activated often 'mirror those involved when people perform, imagine, or observe similar real-world activities.' Deep reading , says the study's lead researcher, Nicole Speer, 'is by no means a passive exercise.' The reader becomes the book." (Nicholas Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains . W.W. Norton, 2010

"[Nicholas] Carr's charge [in the article "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic , July 2008] that superficiality bleeds over into other activities such as deep reading and analysis is a serious one for scholarship, which is almost entirely constituted of such activity. In this view engagement with technology is not just a distraction, or another pressure on an overloaded academic, but is positively dangerous. It becomes something akin to a virus, infecting the key critical engagement skills required for scholarship to function. . . . "What is . . . not clear is if people are engaging in new types of activity that replace the function of deep reading." (Martin Weller, The Digital Scholar: How Technology is Transforming Scholarly Practice . Bloomsbury Academic, 2011)

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Thoughts on creativity, writing & making

The 71 Best Deep Topics to Write About in 2024

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As writers, we often find inspiration in the simplest things.

A favorite quote, a new experience, the beauty of nature. But sometimes, we need to go a little deeper.

That’s where these 41 deep topics are valuable as writing prompts.

They provide a wealth of inspiration for your writing, and can help you tap into your innermost thoughts and feelings.

Some of these topics are broad, others are serious. Don’t feel like you have to a solid point of view, or even a full-fledged essay or paragraph. Just begin with random thoughts or bullet points.

Later, you can return and shape your writing into something meaningful. As you continue to write, you will develop a point of view on these topics, and then revise your writing into a new piece.

What are deep topics to write about?

• Write about the human experience
• Write about people’s place in the universe
• Write about life after death
• Write about the purpose of love and relationships
• Write about suffering and pain
• Write about happiness and joy
• Write about success and failure
• Write about the importance of education and learning
• Write about what it means to experience success and failure
• Write about technology and its impact on society
• Write about what religion and spirituality means to you
• Write about the nature of reality
• Write about politics and current affairs
• Write about ethics and morality
• Write about your experience with race and ethnicity
• Write about mental health and well-being
• Write about physical health and fitness and why it’s important
• Write about career, work, and life balance
• Write about the joy & struggle of creative pursuits
• Write about managing personal finances
• Write about minimalism and simple living
• Write about the environment and sustainability
• Write about your favorite poem or quote and what it means to you.
• Write about a time when you were pushed to your limits and how you overcame that experience.
• Write about when you felt most alive.
• Write about a dream or goal that you have and how you plan to achieve it.
• Write about artificial Intelligence and its implications
• Write about the impact of climate change on society
• Write about how technology affects human interaction
• Write about the ethical implications of genetically modified organisms
• Write about the role of multinational corporations & the economy
• Write about the role of education and society
• Write about the impact of social media and mental health
• Write about the use of big data to control people’s actions
• Write about the psychological effects of political uncertainty
• Write about the impact of social media on democracy
• Write about the effects of job automation
• Write about the future of online security and privacy
• Write about the concept of time and its influence on human existence.
• Write about the interconnectedness of all living things on Earth.
• Write about the concept of forgiveness and its role in personal growth.
• Write about the influence of culture on individual identity.
• Write about the role of empathy in fostering understanding between people.
• Write about the impact of silence and solitude on self-discovery.
• Write about the relationship between art and the human experience.
• Write about the philosophy of existentialism and its relevance today.
• Write about the power of human resilience in the face of adversity.
• Write about the concept of beauty and its subjective nature.
• Write about the role of rituals and traditions in shaping society.
• Write about the idea of destiny and whether individuals have control over their fate.
• Write about the significance of storytelling in preserving culture and history.
• Write about the role of intuition in decision-making.
• Write about the importance of laughter and humor in human life.
• Write about the concept of home and its emotional significance.
• Write about the impact of globalization on cultural diversity.
• Write about the role of curiosity in personal and intellectual growth.
• Write about the connection between creativity and mental well-being.
• Write about the influence of childhood experiences on adult relationships.
• Write about the concept of justice and its implementation in society.
• Write about the impact of peer pressure on individual choices.
• Write about the evolving definition of family in contemporary society.
• Write about the concept of fate versus free will.
• Write about the connection between gratitude and mental well-being.
• Write about the influence of personal values on decision-making.
• Write about the concept of consciousness and self-awareness.
• Write about the impact of cultural diversity on innovation.
• Write about the relationship between power and responsibility in leadership.

Use these deep topics and writing prompts to learn more about yourself

It’s easy to find inspiration for writing in the big things – the life-changing moments, the heart-wrenching experiences, and the jaw-dropping revelations. This list has a lot of serious topics. Use them as a starting point for your next piece of writing, and see where they take you!

But what about those small moments that make up our everyday lives? The times when we’re stuck in traffic, or waiting in line at the grocery store, or taking a shower?

It’s during these mundane moments that we have an opportunity to explore deep topics that shape who we are.

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Essays on Deeper Meaning

18 samples on this topic

The variety of written assignments you might be tasked with while studying Deeper Meaning is stunning. If some are too difficult, an expertly crafted sample Deeper Meaning piece on a related subject might lead you out of a deadlock. This is when you will definitely appreciate WowEssays.com ever-widening directory of Deeper Meaning essay samples meant to spark your writing enthusiasm.

Our directory of free college paper samples showcases the most bright instances of excellent writing on Deeper Meaning and related topics. Not only can they help you develop an interesting and fresh topic, but also display the effective use of the best Deeper Meaning writing practices and content structuring techniques. Also, keep in mind that you can use them as a source of dependable sources and factual or statistical information processed by real masters of their craft with solid academic experience in the Deeper Meaning area.

Alternatively, you can take advantage of efficient write my essay assistance, when our authors deliver a unique example essay on Deeper Meaning tailored to your individual specifications!

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Essay Intensive

deeper meaning

How to make your college essay more meaningful.

May 24, 2017 by Sara Nolan

Here's what NOT to do if you want your college essay to be more meaningful False stabs at a meaningful essay go like this: Try to make your writing sound like someone else's, preferably that person you know who got into Harvard early. Write it with one hand the night before it's due while picking your toes and scrolling google for quotes by famous people that feel even marginally applicable. Flip out about it and decide that you have to write with overwhelmingly convoluted lyric sentences and complete absence of ego. OK, now we got that out of the way, go for a walk.  Then-- Here's what to do if you want your essay to be more meaningful Remember that you matter. Period. Decide that being stressed out about one more thing purely because everyone else is or tells you to be is boring. Decide you will not treat your college essay merely as something to have completed. Do not aim to use fancypants vocabulary words you would not use if talking to a good friend about a complex movie you loved. Slow down the writing process a little.  Ask yourself what you would write about if you knew you would be listened to and understood. Write in order to be listened to and understood. Ask yourself how many things that you do in life are meaningful to you personally. If the list is short, why? Ask yourself what the most true thing is at this moment for you.  What makes you sit up, stand up, rev up, tear up? Challenge yourself to describe a scene from your life with skin-tingling presence. Don't check social media accounts while writing your essay.  This correlates with spikes in incomplete thoughts, and dips in contentment levels. Share your work with people who don't HAVE to read it, and ask them if they are moved.  Then, talk about what you wrote. Drink a hot beverage you love, and go find some grass to look at. Some insects are living out their whole lives in that grass, at this very moment, not giving a damn. Give less of a   Continue Reading …

Have Essay, Will Travel

March 1, 2017 by Sara Nolan

It is exciting when I get to travel with my students for the long haul. Francesca, an irreverent and deeply talented student I first taught when she was in 8th grade, is now a writing colleague and itinerant scholar. She's left school, again (yes, you can leave school for good reasons)...to travel and write and to write about travel as a state of mind. Here's just a fraction of her story, and how her college essay became an important touch-stone on a journey of inner and outer travel that is not yet done. Francesca obligingly wrote this for you, as a case in point that your college essay can be so much more than a thing you write to get into college. (It also makes me pleasantly squirmy to be a protagonist/antagonist in such a fine story). Francesca's College Essay Story Travel Back When I walked into Sara’s house in the summer before my senior year of high school, late for our meeting and out of breath, I had no idea what I wanted to write my college essay about. Sara offered me a plate of avocado toast, and as I ate, she had me free write on a couple on prompts. I had seen Sara infrequently over the past few years, but in 2009, when I was in eighth grade, Sara and I had travelled around Europe and Northern Africa together. For a school year, she had homeschooled my sister and me, teaching me English, writing, history, Latin, and anatomy. We had spent many hours together most days of the week. Our year of traveling felt simultaneously central to my identity and far removed from my real life. It was like a dream that I couldn’t fully remember, but that continued to affect me in my waking hours. That is, it was like a dream I couldn’t fully remember until I sat down at Sara’s kitchen table with a slice of avocado toast and realized that, of course, my personal statement would have to be about our trip. Revision and Remembering I was very proud of the essay I wrote with Sara. I had never worked on a piece of writing so intensely, though I loved to   Continue Reading …

“Grandma Essay” or College Essay As Eulogy?

September 29, 2016 by Sara Nolan

The "Grandma Essay" Everyone Warns You About...Is Not what you think! I'm writing to tell you a story.  This story ends with a college essay that became a eulogy. It was a topic no-no turned yes-yes: the "grandma essay" your counselor warned you about. But this story started as a young, earnest kid, J, clutched a pencil, and tried to tell me, like every other gritty kid I coach has told me, that he is determined. Show me, I said.  Tell me a story that shows me. Or maybe it started differently.  Maybe we were eating sandwiches while we worked together, sifting through his life, looking for particulars, and he mentioned how his grandma only liked her chicken sandwich this one particular way. Uh-oh, he said "grandma."  Cue the sentimental violin chorus.  Now, how a person likes a sandwiches can reveal a lot about personality-- it's true.  But an applicant is supposed to be careful not to focus too much on other family members in the personal essay-- right? Right, guys? And we ALL KNOW "the grandma essay" is soggy toilet paper of a topic, right? (Even if I'm personally a sucker for the elderly). But my interest came from somewhere else. My interest was peaked because of the look in his eye, the flicker that showed me that one comment about grandma had sent him to some gold-nugget inner place.   Continue Reading …

100 English Words With Deep Meanings (That’ll Inspire You!)

I’m on a quest to unearth forgotten words, so I’ve curated a collection of them. These are linguistic gems, seldom whispered in our daily dialogues. I’ve adorned each with vivid definitions to tantalize your intellect. Think of this glossary as a trove of verbal enchantments , kindling your creativity and evoking spine-tingling wonder. They’re like clandestine treasures in the open! While I’ve spotlighted some of the most elusive words here, know that this deep dive into the English language is ever-expanding.

“I believe in the magic and authority of the words.” – René Char

Here’s a list of 100 English words with deep meanings:

Callipygian – having shapely buttocks.

Sabaism – the worship of stars or spirits in them, especially as practiced in ancient Arabia and Mesopotamia.

Mundivagant – archaic word for “wandering over the world.”

Denouement – the outcome of a complex sequence of events.

Effervescence – the property of forming bubbles (or an appealingly lively quality).

Audacity – the confidence to say or do what you want, despite difficulties, risks, or the negative attitudes of other people.

Alchemy – studies about substances through which the generation of gold and silver may be artificially accomplished.

Enubilous – Clear from fog, mist, or clouds.

Vellichor – the wistfulness of a second-hand bookshop.

Vigil – the act of keeping awake at times  when sleep is customary .

Troglodyte – a person, characterized by reclusive habits or outmoded or reactionary attitudes.

Alcazar – a Spanish palace or fortress of Moorish origin.

Cosmopolitan – having broad international sophistication .

Callow – without the experience of the world.

Arborescent – having the nature of a tree.

Perennial – continuing through many years.

Verdant – green with vegetation.

Metaphysics – the principles of philosophy as applied to explain the methods of any particular science.

Petrify – to convert into a substance of stony hardness and character.

Congenial – having kindred character or tastes.

Parable – a brief narrative founded on the real scenes or events usually with a moral.

Anticlimax – a gradual or sudden decrease in the importance or impressiveness of what is said.

Annals – a record of events in their chronological order year-by-year.

Subaquatic – being, formed, or operating underwater.

Panacea – a remedy or medicine proposed for all professing to cure all diseases.

Apostasy – a portal departure from one’s faith or religion.

Antediluvian – of or relating to the period before the flood described in the scriptures.

Convalescence – the state of progressive restoration to health and strength after the cessation of disease.

Translucent – allowing the passage of light.

Melancholy – a feeling of pensive sadness, typically with no obvious cause.

Catharsis – the process of releasing and thereby providing relief from strong or repressed emotions.

Esoteric – intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.

Soporific – tending to induce drowsiness or sleep; causing lethargy or dullness.

Discretion – the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information.

Cacophony – a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.

Quixotic – exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.

Are you inspired by this list of deep English words?

The philosopher Terence McKenna once said that the world is made of language. He was definitely onto something because, by using unique words, we construct our reality. The more beautiful words you know in the English language, the better you can describe what’s going on around you and within you. This leads to the emergence of a mysterious sense of wonder and curiosity about the world that makes life worth living. I hope that the above list of unique words inspired you and filled you with a sense of wonder and yearning for high literature . You might also be interested in checking the list of the most beautiful words in the world.

Rafal Reyzer

Hey there, welcome to my blog! I'm a full-time entrepreneur building two companies, a digital marketer, and a content creator with 10+ years of experience. I started RafalReyzer.com to provide you with great tools and strategies you can use to become a proficient digital marketer and achieve freedom through online creativity. My site is a one-stop shop for digital marketers, and content enthusiasts who want to be independent, earn more money, and create beautiful things. Explore my journey here , and don't miss out on my AI Marketing Mastery online course.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Crucible — The Crucible: The Meaning of John Proctor’s Death to His Wife, Elizabeth

The Crucible: The Meaning of John Proctor’s Death to His Wife, Elizabeth

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America’s Mental Health Crisis and the Loss of Meaning

Our media-saturated culture robs us of deeper contemplation.

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In Athens during the fifth century B.C., Socrates sat on a street corner accosting people on their way to work: “Good Sir, you are an Athenian, a citizen of the greatest city with the greatest reputation for both wisdom and power; are you not ashamed of your eagerness to possess as much wealth, reputation and honors as possible, while you do not care for nor give thought to wisdom or truth or the best possible state of your soul?” 

This passage, taken from Plato’s Apology of Socrates , has always fascinated me as a reflection of the way human beings will do anything to avoid the most basic and essential questions of life: meaning, existence, purpose, and morality. What were these Athenians distracted by? They had no social media or text messages or podcasts to preoccupy them on their way to work. What kept them from using their daily commute as a time to reflect on “wisdom or truth or the best possible state” of their souls? Something about the human heart works hard to avoid honest reflection on the meaning of our existence. And yet at the same time, a life without meaning is hardly worth living. 

Such is the dual nature of humanity: We avoid the very thing that makes our life fulfilling. 

And I suspect this tension is partially responsible for the current mental health crisis that is deeply affecting our nation. According to the National Alliance on Mental Health , more than one in five adults experienced a mental illness in 2021. Young Americans have been particularly affected . The situation has grown so bad that President Joe Biden announced a strategy for addressing it in his 2022 State of the Union address. While this crisis is certainly multicausal, it’s reasonable to assume it’s related to our disconnection from meaning. The less we feel like our lives are meaningful, the more miserable we will be. 

“The only thing that consoles us for our miseries is diversion,” philosopher, mathematician, and all round whiz kid Blaise Pascal wrote in the 17th century in his Pensées . “And yet it is the greatest of our miseries. For it is that above all which prevents us from thinking about ourselves and leads us imperceptibly to destruction. But for that we should be bored, and boredom would drive us to seek some more solid means of escape, but diversion passes our time and brings us imperceptibly to our death.”

For Pascal, this hardwired drive to diversion is a kind of will to death. If we didn’t divert ourselves, we’d have to face our existence head-on and find some escape from meaninglessness. As with ancient Athens, I wonder what diversions were so engaging in the 17th century that kept people from contemplating the meaning of life.

Though humans have always had this aversion to contemplation, the structures and technologies of society haven’t always been so intensely and intentionally designed to prevent contemplation as they seem now. Everything in our world calls out to us, demands our attention, inserts itself into our field of vision or hearing. You can’t even pump gas without a screen built into the pump blaring out some video. In a historically unimaginable way, it is not only possible but quite common for modern people to spend the moment they wake up to the moment they fall asleep engaged with some form of media. Never alone. Never able to contemplate the state of their soul. 

We are in the middle of a crisis of meaning in the West, a widely shared sense that our lives lack substance and significance. Scholars such as cognitive scientist John Vervaeke have tied it to our mental health crisis . And I believe a major reason for this crisis is that the structures of our environment prevent us from engaging with the tangible world in a way that creates what philosopher Hartmut Rosa calls “resonance.” The experience of resonance occurs when you come in contact with the world and feel your inability to master and control it. You are moved by a scene in nature or a line of poetry, and you engage those things in a way that accepts that they are outside of your control. They have an independence that matters and resonates with you, but it is not dependent on your recognition of such to be meaningful in themselves. 

But we also lose one of the fruits of experience of resonance: meaning and wisdom. Rosa, in his short but brilliant book, The Uncontrollability of the World , argues that modern people feel like the world is retreating. Life feels flat, stale, and mute. The universe no longer speaks to us with meaning. Instead, we try to impose meaning on the world through our active control over nature and our lives.

Perhaps you see children playing in a sprinkler on a hot day, and the beauty and simplicity of that experience resonates with you deeply. You drink in the moment and savor it without trying to capture it with a picture or record it or control it in some other way. We lose the ability to have these moments when we are constantly connected to media.

Part of this experience of meaninglessness comes from living in what philosopher Charles Taylor calls, in his book by the same title , “a secular age.” It includes an expanding horizon of belief systems for us to adopt. These include traditional worldviews like Christianity and communism, but they also include causes and lifestyle options like environmentalism, diet and fitness culture, and political activism. According to Taylor, all of these beliefs feel tentative, uncertain, and contested in a secular age. Most of us no longer effectively believe in an external world (a world of resonance!) that has inherent meaning in it. Instead, we believe that all the meaning in the world has been placed there by us, by a choice we make. A flower isn’t inherently beautiful; its beauty is something I choose to ascribe to it. Sex isn’t inherently meaningful; its meaning is entirely something I choose to define. The world is mute: It has nothing to tell us because it cannot speak. It is raw, material existence.

The problem with this is that it doesn’t feel like meaning is only self-created. I write about this in my book You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World . The love I have for my family feels like it is something real and tangible and external to me, something I either resonate with or ignore. But the meaning is always there. The only question is whether I am too distracted by my smartphone to recognize that love or not.

And this is the fundamental challenge for modern people. To live the good life requires reflection on what the good life is and resonance with the real world. But our environment, by design, keeps us from this reflection and mediates the real world so we don’t experience resonance. It keeps us from contemplating both our sin and fallibility and the reality that we are made in the image of God. When we follow the wisdom of Socrates and Pascal, and when we experience the world through resonance, we discover that existence itself is a miraculous gift. And that gift has a Giver who desires us to know Him and believe in Him. We discover that the crisis of meaning can be overcome by connecting to the real world and understanding our need for a savior.

Our nature is to avoid ourselves and life’s big questions. Our modern environment enables this avoidance through technology. But the result of this avoidance is not peace, but as Pascal calls it, “misery,” and the current mental health crisis affecting so many Americans is an example of this misery. To overcome this misery, we need to work against our environment, discovering that the world is resonant with meaning imbued by a loving God who calls us to Him.

O. Alan Noble

O. Alan Noble is associate professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University, and author of three books: "On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living," "You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World," and "Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age."

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The Big Ideas: What Do We Fear?

When We Fear Silence, We Abandon the Self

The constant distractions of modern life have become an excuse to avoid the search for meaning.

Credit... Ibrahim Rayintakath

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By Paul Lynch

• June 12, 2024

This essay is part of a series called The Big Ideas, in which writers respond to a single question: What do we fear? You can read more by visiting The Big Ideas series page .

Sometime in 1993, as I walked along a street in my hometown, Carndonagh, County Donegal, Ireland, a car pulled up alongside me, triggering sudden dread. The window came down, and I was met by the dark, inquisitory eyes of my father.

“Why aren’t you at Mass?” he asked.

I see myself, fierce and lean in a Slayer T-shirt, bristling with the rage of the nihilist. I longed to escape the claustrophobic small town and the towering shadow of the Catholic Church. For once I was impelled to tell the truth.

“Look,” I said, “I have no faith. I don’t believe in God anymore and can’t go on with the pretense.”

I was met with an imprisoning silence. But what my father said next astonished me.

“OK,” he replied. “Just don’t tell your mother.”

With those six words, my father set me free to enter the kingdom of the seeker, although at first, I did not seek very much. I had an incendiary’s ire to burn it all down — every institution, religious or otherwise, that sought to control the narrative of meaning or to impose orthodoxy upon my life. Now that I had solved the problem of God, I thought, I could adopt a life of distraction and revelry.

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