Annie Dillard

Carolina; it was revealed that in that one acre, with the depth of five inches, there were approximately 124 million creatures to be found. These facts serve as a reminder that the world is close to bursting with these tiny beings, yet we as humans barely take the time to notice them. There are those rare few, however, who have learned to see fully and deeply, and to appreciate the beauty and the violence in the world around them. Annie Dillard…

In her essay “Total Eclipse, ” Annie Dillard makes use of metaphor after metaphor and vivid, descriptive imagery to reveal the main message behind her text: mankind needs to wake up and be conscious of what is going on in the world outside of themselves. Through the sharing of her personal and emotionally driven experience of seeing a total eclipse, Dillard is able to draw the reader in. The eclipse has a very large impact on Dillard’s life and outlook of the world. Under the influence of the…

Annie Dillard’s mother inspired her to be who she is as a writer. Her mother’s love for language shines through in the way Dillard pieces together words and structures her works. The ideas instilled in her to never settle or conform to norms in life and is evident in many of her works and particularly in An American Childhood. Although her mother may have felt trapped as a housewife, she inspired her daughter to be free to express herself through language. Dillard’s mother was fascinated by…

The idea behind “An American Childhood” by Annie Dillard shows great examples for writers in her how to show and describe something in detail without giving away key notes that could possibly make an individual subconsciously pre-judge. Dillard, throughout the small reading is able to display what her mother was like and who she was without giving her a face as well as accentuating her beauty. Her mother’s personality showed fun and eccentric as her daughter explained how her and her sister…

In Annie Dillard’s essay, Living Like Weasels, Dillard uses stylistic writing to make her story more universally understandable, starting from her initial encounter the with a weasel and the life lesson she took out of the encounter. The essay gives its readers an unusual comparison between the life of human beings and the life of weasels. There is also a physical description of how Ernest Thompson shot an eagle and found the skull of a weasel clinging to its throat which was a perfect symbol of…

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard is a memoir of her life and memories of growing up with a wealthy family. When she was five years old she recalled becoming more mindful of the world around her and herself. She found it interesting that her own skin was beautiful and tight compared to her parents loss and saggy skin. Dillard described many of her childhood events that made her feel alive and excited. In the Beginning, a young Dillard believed that a monster was creeping into her room…

In the autobiography “An American Childhood” written by Annie Dillard, Dillard wrote about one of her unforgettable memories that left her disillusioned because of her misconception about an adult’s view of life. On the other hand, Saira Shah, in her article, “Longing to Belong”, she wrote about how her dreams of being part of her “original culture” crashed by a single incident that make her realize that the reality is not the same as what she expected. Therefore, it is clear that both of the…

Dillard In-Class Write Annie Dillard includes two major analogies in her text, “The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” including the penny game she used to play as a child and the gaps that house the spirits. Dillard uses the penny game not to disappoint strangers with a mere penny but rather to “cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity,” showing the importance of little things that can make your day. (Dillard 22) Dillard also uses the gaps as well to emphasize the importance of little things,…

Annie Dillard, in the book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, explores the true elements of nature while finding her inner self. Dillard argues that society has lost touch with nature and lost sight of it’s true beauty. Dillard supports her argument by telling personal stories of her exploring nature and comparing society to it. The author’s purpose is to have artificial materials not be the most important part of society so that society can once again have a greater sense and appreciation for the nature…

Annie Dillard’s writing advice is clinically ambitious. By mustering the bravery to cut unnecessary material, Dillard says that writers can make their writing accessible to their audience. But if they don’t they will lose their readers to movies like a female butterfly loses her mate to a flashy cardboard butterfly (Writing 18). Her words are harsh: “Why not shoot yourself, actually, rather than finish one more excellent manuscript on which to gag the world?” (Writing 12). Despite her…