Analysis of “Seeing” by Annie Dillard

Max 11/5/12 Eng. 101 930-1100 comprehend by Annie Dillard 1) According to Dillard, lovers and the knowledge equal substructure mark remove well. Yet she also suggests that those who ar knowledge fitting on a topic, such as people who dedicate been blind from birth and dirty dog suddenly see (due to an opperation), can perhaps view much objectively the piece around them, and see it in a way that those with spate from birth can non.Infants, she says, can see real clearly, for they argon viewing the world for the first-year time, and can observe the colors and the light with no prejudgments, only if we forget this experience as we grow older, and only occasion in everyy sire glimpses of this phenomenon. 2) Lovers can see well, because their vision transcends the obvious, if they love a lake, they do non merely see a lake, still also see what the lake represents for them, they see meaning.The knowledgeable can see because as small children we are evermore learning, how ever those who are knowledgeable continue to learn throughout their lives, which enables them to elapse discovering new ways to view the world and allows them to keep an break heading and open eye. Those who know little can see, but only if they are open to knowledge, even if that knowledge is self taught, they just must be open to experience and to wonder. ) marking contributes to happiness because when we allow ourselves to see, we allow ourselves to open our minds and our hearts, and to see the wonder in the world, which we a great deal close ourselves off to as we grow older. Perhaps when we begin to learn of all the sufferings of creation, we close ourselves off to seeing, because we dont want to know, but if we do non allow ourselves to see and tactile sensation suffering, we shut the door to the joys and wonders of this world as well. ) The part of Dillards essay which struck me the most was her retelling of the experiences of those who had been blinded from birth a nd were so granted sight, and how they did not admit a sense of visual space or distance. It made me recognize how my perception of the world is a combination of all my senses, and I cant real distinguish them. If I see an apple, I dont only see it, but I imagine how it feels, tastes, smells, sounds as I bight into it. It is hard to discipline each of those from each other, but the sound of n apple organism bitten into without the knowledge of it being an apple or knowing what it tastes or smells like, is a novel idea. To think of it separately is difficult, but if you can isolate it, it is unfeignedly fascinating, exciting even, for it is like a whole new experience. 5) When Dillard uses the term seeing, she actor seeing something beyond the obvious. When looking at a tree, not seeing just a tree, but seeing it as if you were seeing it for the first time, and seeing it for all that it entails. ) A person may see not with the eyes, if they were to feel something deep within t hemselves that could not be attributed to any of the senses. Seeing in this case means to understand what the view means to the individual. 7) See is most closely a synonym with understand and appreciate. What Dillard means is to appreciate, for often we go through smell not seeing because we are ungrateful. However, unity and only(a) cannot truly appreciate unless they understand. One can look at the stars and not know what they are and still see them and understand.What I mean by understand, is not to be able to scientifically explain, but to wonder virtually and to be able to understand what it means to the the individual. Death of a Moth- Annie Dillard 8) The unfixed article article a in Dillards title suggests that when she speaks roughly the vulnerabilities and fragilities of one moth, she speaks for the whole species. She observed a moth burn in the taper, but it could have been any moth, for they all are vulnerable to fire. Humans as well, are all connected in this wa y, when one person dies, we are reminded of our have got vulnerability and our own lack of power in the face of death. ) In Dillards essay the moth dies by flying into the flame of the candle while Dillard is camping. 10) I think the moth is significant to Dillard because it reminds her of her own vulnerability. Death is one thing which connects all life forms, irronic, but true. When she speaks of a moth, she speaks of all moths, and not only all moths, but all life forms, including herself. The moth stands out to her as well because the moth basically surrenders its life in order to allow her to read through the night, not knowingly or on purpose, but Dillard benefits from the death of this moth.This is sort of an event of the circle of life, for though one life form dies, some other is able to flourish, this is of course on a small scale, but the concept is the same. 11) Dillard retreats to the hills because she is exhalation through put outrs block and is trying to re-moti vate herself to write. She brings with her The Day on Fire by James Ullman, a book which she read as a progeny person which inspired her to write. 12) In Death of a Moth, Dillard seems to be changeable what she wants to write about.She begins by talking about herself living alone in an apartment, then diverges to discuss her trip to the hills to try to get motivated to write again and about watching a moth die in her candle flame, and then in the last paragraph she goes back to talking about living alone. The middle of her essay about her retreat to the hills by herself seems to be about her feelings of loneliness as well though. Even the moth dying is a representation of her solitude, for the moth dies alone. Dillard enjoys being alone, as she clearly states, which I have no doubt is true, but she also seems to want to want company.I find this very relateable, I enjoy my solitude very much, but sometimes I wish that I could be happy and comfortable living with another person, but I feel I cannot be myself unless I am alone. The only time Dillard wishes to not live alone, is when something is funny, because it is much easier to share gleeful times with others than to share ones pain. I would prefer to die alone because then I would not have to worry about how those around me felt, and I would be able to allow myself to feel however I felt, and if I did feel pain when I died, I would want to be able to feel that, and people around me might hinder my ability to do that.I think this is what Dillard may have felt watching the moth die, she pities the moth for dying alone, but the moth goes out majestically and for this reason Dillard envies her. Dillard wishes her death to be real, majestic, and she fears living her life with other people will ruin her death. It is a sad reality to live your life in fear of death, but even more tragic to live your life in preperation for a perfect death.