english 1101

Jana Shepard ©2021

While Dillard is focusing on nature in her essay, the concepts she describes can apply to other aspects of life. We all have preconditioned notions that are ingrained in our minds from a young age: Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny are some benign examples. Racism is a not so benign example. Religion is another example which can, in some circumstances, condition an individual to judge, mistrust, or even hate people of a different religion without knowing a thing about them. In recent years politics has become very divisive as well.

Dillard says “There are a lot of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises. The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand” (17).

What is the "pennies cast broadside from a generous hand” (17). For a visual of this phrase, imagine someone with a bag of grass seed under one arm, reaching in for handfuls, and then spreading the seed out on a lawn. In Dillard's phrase, the pennies are a metaphor for the "unwrapped gifts and free surprises." Dillard doesn't state who the "generous hand" belongs to. I suspect that in her mind it was God since she is a somewhat religious person. If this is who you think owns the generous hand, that is fine. She leaves it open, however, so non-religious people or those with differing views than she has can fill in what makes sense to them. It could be fate, mother nature, life, etc.

Dillard says, “what you see is what you get” (17) and then later states, “I see what I expect” (20). This comes back to our preconceived notions about things. For example, if we have been conditioned to think of Muslim people as terrorists, when we see a Muslim person, we will see a terrorist. What we won't see is the more accurate reality of the situation. The Muslim person most likely has many of the same concerns as everyone else—paying the bills, the teenage kid wants a car and insurance rates will go up, why did the littlest kid put bubble gum in his sister's hair, etc.

Dillard discusses two ways of seeing and says one of these ways “of seeing involves letting go” (33). Letting go means to let go of our preconceived notions, to let go of whatever it is we use to fill in the gaps and to allow what we are seeing to present itself as it is, not as we think it should be.

Toward the end of the essay, Dillard says that “all [she] can do is try to gag the commentator, to hush the noise of useless internal babble that keeps [her] from seeing” (34 – 35). This commentator is the voice in her head. How often do we have all these thoughts bouncing around in our heads like bumper cars at a carnival? And, like the bumper cars, how often do we actually get anywhere with the thoughts? I'm not saying thinking isn't a good thing—some people should do more of it, but most of us need to learn to use thinking as a tool and not a a substitute for being. With all these thoughts, the "noise of useless internal babble," we miss a lot of the pennies, the gifts and free surprises. We will discuss this in more detail in the next Unit when we read Eckhart Tolle.

Annie Dillard "Seeing" overview 1