Preview

Audubon and Dillard Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
473 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Audubon and Dillard Essay Example
Audubon and Dillard

A small child views a painting, giggling to his mother how it looks like an elephant soaring throughout the galaxy. An hour later a middle age man views the exact painting only to acknowledge the abstract painting as a collage of miscellaneous shapes and colors. This view is much like the comparison between John James Auburn and Annie Dillard passages, revealing opposite and similar aspects on the subject of birds. Auburn's passage inhabits a sense of seriousness and monotone. Incorporating direct details such as his departure from his house on the "banks of the Ohio" and observing pigeons fly "north-east to southwest" reveals his scientific train of thinking. By him pinpointing each step of his experience of watching birds, it displays how his mind functions and distinguishes situations. Show casing his down to earth tone, Auburn delivers a step-to-step encounter with the birds flying high above him. Auburn describes the flock of birds "like a torrent" that made a sound "like a noise of thunder" that came by with such a "compact mass". Auburn's passage consists mainly of scientific observations but the word incorporations towards the end of the passage are significant components which assist in portraying a poetic and metaphoric language. By Auburn incorporating this poetic feel, it displays his exhilaration and pure amazement of theses specimen. Annie Dillard portrays her thoughts differently in her passage, incorporating a poetic sense that is carried through out the entire passage. Dillard describes the birds she is viewing as "transparent" and that they seem to be "whirling like smoke". Already one could identify that Dillard's passage has more of poetic feel over a scientific feel. This poetic feeling carries through the entire passage, displaying Dillard's total awe of these birds. She also incorporates word choices such as "unravel" and that he birds seem to be "lengthening in curves" like a "loosened skein". Dillard's

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The reason why she wrote the first essay is also explained in this second essay. Before writing that essay, Annie Dillard was very successful but puzzled and lonely. She wanted to figure out the the meaning of life and the meaning of everything. That morning Annie Dillard saw hollow moths which reminded herself her experience in a camp where she learned how to identify moths when they are empty. The empty moth made Annie Dillard think that a writer is like that moth and she should empty herself to dedicate herself to art. Also inspired by Rimbaud, who was a famous crazy poet and respected by the author, Annie Dillard wanted build a…

    • 389 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Despite the fact that the speaker’s plan is to reveal a water lily in a painting, he cannot help but recognize the sights and sounds that also help create the image of nature. When he “observe[s] the air’s dragonfly,” he does not simply see an insect that “bullets by.” He…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The authors of these two passages John James Audubon and Annie Dillard, both provide impeccable delivery of their content. The clarity of their diction is highlighted by aerial awe, broad word choice, and the contrast of intent. Through the use of birds as the topic of interest, the authors utilize their styles in opportunistic points to convey the main idea. Breaking down the articulate central idea into a detailed passages seems to be the evident stylistic approach.…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ulysses Simpson Grant, (1822-1885), American general and 18th President of the United States. Grant, the most capable of the Union generals during the Civil War, was a master strategist. He won the first major Union victories. President Abraham Lincoln staunchly defended him against critics and promoted him to command all Union forces. Grant accepted Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House. However, Grant had no disposition for political leadership, and as president (1869-1877) he scarcely attempted to control events. He made injudicious appointments to public office, and official corruption tainted his administration, although Grant himself was not involved in the peculations.…

    • 4275 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bird image repeated in simile ‘birds of passage’: impermanence of existence, no settling down, unaware of what direction and time they will take…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Intense imagery, contrasts, comparisons, and parallelism are used in conveying the complexity of her feelings toward nature. She ties in the similarities between the terror-striking reaction to the great horned owl and the heart-striking happiness of a field of roses.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The sanderlings simile represents a time of disguise. As humans, we hide, run, and shield ourselves from pain, sorrow, truth, and sometimes, ourselves. The birds symbolize our desperation to not be found in our times of struggle; we blend in with the crowd making ourselves, as Carson said, of no color. Carson does a phenomenal job of illustrating emotion through her connections, imagery, and symbolism. This use of rhetorical devices makes her message understandable to, people of all ages who go through the roller-coaster of life, her audience. The essay flows beautifully as the author successfully makes her point, or purpose, clear to her audience members. Using strategies such as symbolism, comparisons, and imagery to set a serene mood makes…

    • 126 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Annie Dillard's memoir, An American Childhood, details the author's growing up years and gives the reader many insights into herself. Dillard describes many of the things that molded her during her childhood years, including family, humor, nature, drawing, and sports. At various times during her childhood, Dillard's entire world revolves around one or another of these interests, and each of them shape her personality. Although Dillard's many passions influence her life incredibly, it is reading, however, that most molds her childhood worldview. Reading opens the doors through which she eagerly steps, her curiosity prompting her to endless discoveries in books.…

    • 957 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    4 O'Clock Birds Singing

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages

    To conclude, the author uses diction and metaphors to describe the bird’s song. Through the use of these literary devices, the author shows how the birds’ songs are powerful, and how quickly their songs’ end once the sun has fully…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Nesting Time”, a poem by Douglas Stewart combines an anecdote of his and his daughters experience in nature, with description of the appearance and behavior of the honey-eater, and his typical philosophical reflection in the relationship of nature and man. The poem is thus personal, objective and universal in its several dimensions. This is a charming poem that appears to comment on Stewart’s personal experience. He is pleasantly surprised by the behavior and appearance of this remarkable bird, which makes him forget the ‘hard world’, focus on its tiny beauty and cause him to reflect on humankind and nature. The opening is impassioned in its generalizing quality: ‘Oh never in this hard world’. It is apparent from this judgment that Stewart, in regarding our human life as a difficult and unconsoling affair, finds profound solace in nature and her creatures. The reader notices the contrast between his heartfelt “Oh” and absolute indictment of ‘never’, and the cluster of adjectives, with internal rhyme, which introduces the bird: ‘absurd/Charming utterly disarming little bird’. His love for it grows from an initial acknowledgment of its silliness and, then, praise of its captivating behavior to, finally, and adoring diminutive in ‘little’. It is Stewart’s descriptive language that brings the scene to visual life. The bird’s actions and purpose are highly visual through the often…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Annie uses consciousness and mindfulness to develop her essay. By talking about how others see things differently from other in society . Dillard says, “ I once spent a full three minutes looking at a bullfrog that was so unexpectedly large I couldn't see it even though a dozen enthusiastic camper were shouting direction finally i ask what color am i looking for and a fellow said green at last i pick out the frog i saw what painters are up against the things wasn't green at all but the color of wet hickory bark”(4). Dillard is showing that everyone see and picture thing differently from others. Some people look at stuff with more meaning while other just look at it just for the simple things. We need to start look for more meaning in things because it will give us more understanding of what the…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Annie Dillard. Bio Essay

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages

    pleasure.” (Carruth) Indeed Carruth is correct. Dillard’s creativity with and in nature puts us in…

    • 1506 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    C. Quote 3 – “O’Connor also enjoyed painting and raising exotic birds, motifs that are evident in her writing.”…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the beginning of time, nature has been a great source of wonder and inspiration for mankind. Writers have composed about a wide range of the spectacular elements of planet earth from the mightiest of oceans to the most idiosyncratic species of insects. Both John James Audubon and Annie Dillard describe their personal experiences of witnessing large flocks of birds in flight in their own respective passages. The two authors have similar experiences but they describe the birds in different ways. Both descriptions are full of colorful language style and diction, however their two different crafts differentiate the way the event is described.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Holy the Firm

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1. Annie Dillard is opposed to writing personally because the work starts to become more about you and your opinions than the audience and trying to connect with their emotions. She says to avoid writing about things just to write about them and babble on endlessly without cutting it out of the final draft. She also suggests that you need to look at it analytically and coldly or else it will be all about you…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays