Seeing Annie Dillard Analysis

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Dillard develops the idea of taking a deeper look by the use of asking rhetorical questions to the reader. She questions in chapter 8 “Intricacy” , “Wouldn’t it be simpler just to rough in a slab of chemicals, a green acre of goo?” (Dillard 128) Dillard incorporated this to get the reader to look more closely at the complexity of nature by questioning why God made his creations so intricate. She wants to challenge people to view creations with more reason as to why it was made that way. Dillard also asks in “Seeing”, “What if there are really gleaming, castellated cities hung upside-down over the desert sand?” (Dillard 31) She wants the audience to not look at the stars in a typical way, so she directly asks the reader a question to get them to start thinking…show more content…
Dillard demonstrates how to open our minds by using visual imagery. She describes the story of a woman who traced over her lover’s shadows. The text in chapter 4 “Fixed” says, “In his absence she worked over the profile, deepening it, so that she might enjoy his face, and remember.”(Dillard 64) Dillard is describing to the reader that shadows aren’t just “dark marks”, but they also “define the real”. She wants people to realize that there are shadows everywhere and that they show the truth of what something represents. In “Intricacy” she states, “You are a man, a retired railroad worker”(Dillard 128) to emphasize on the complex structure of a tree. She wants the reader to grasp the idea that without a single detail, like a “fairly big hole” for the trunk, then the whole tree will collapse or no longer support the other parts for the tree. Dillard’s purpose in using visual imagery is to inform the reader on how those tiny details affect life in order to get the audience to open their minds to broader concepts of reasoning and

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