“Our parents and grandparents, and all of their friends, seemed insensible to their own prominent defect, their limp, coarse skin,” Dillard states when explaining that one facet of her growing desire to discover and analyze the world was touching and comparing the skin of adults. During her childhood she mainly observed the skin of her mother and father, and often noted the differences their skin had from her own. Dillard describes adult skin as “saggy” and “decrepit”, while describing children’s skin as “taut” and “beautiful.” Yet, despite Dillard’s assessment of her parents as, “bags of skin filled with bones,” they were actually quite young. When they dressed up however, even Dillard admitted that her parents looked “beautiful” despite their
