Henry Miller was not the godless vulgarian that many assume him to be-his real project was self-liberation and self-realization. He ultimately wanted to effect a union of art and life by using the creative powers of writing to reveal and write an inner, repressed self in his auto-novels. This could only be achieved through a direct address and discussion of the corrupted spirituality of his American society, and Miller actively tried to bring about the demise of the American master narratives of industry and bourgeois culture through this honest examination of all of the details and facets of life, including the "vulgar" and "obscene."