Research Paper On Annie Dillard

On April 30, 1945, Annie Dillard was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania (Kort 1). Her given name is Meta Ann Doak and her parents are Frank and Pam Lambert Doak (Barth 636). Annie is the oldest of three daughters. Her mother and father brought her up in the Presbyterian faith. They can be thanked for some of the topics that Dillard writes about (Diana 2).
Annie Dillard was enrolled in private all girls’ schools (Kort 1). She was immensely rebellious. She wanted to leave school, which she often did. Annie started smoking on school grounds and was suspended. She was a bright child but she did not fit in at her school (Barth 636). In her high school years, she began to develop an interest in poetry, especially the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thoreau and Emerson influenced her writing (Diana 2). The pneumonia that almost took her life inspired her (3). Her first book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek was the most impacted on the sickness. Having almost died, the book deals with finding meaning of the universe (Barth 636).
Moving to Tinker Creek and living by herself, to be alone with nature, gave her the idea for the title of her first book. Moving to a cabin on the Puget Sound in Washington State encouraged The Living. She was alone and observing the characteristics of the changing seasons (Diana 3). Having the connection to the concrete world, helped her to experience nature, which her writing is mostly about. One of Annie Dillard’s books is an account of her 1982 trip to China as a member of a United States cultural delegation (Barth 637).
She brings multiple experiences from her trip to the Galápagos Islands and incidents that happened in her life, most importantly in her mid-teen years. She uses her surroundings to find a meaning in the universe, which influence her writing. One book has a description of the Catholic church that she went to and Dillard began questioning the community of humans (641). She brings up what is the meaning of meaning. This questioning can be found throughout her writing (637). Annie’s background in Christianity inspired and can be found in her writing when she is questioning why humans are here. Her readers say her work is intertwined
Teaching a Stone to Talk is a key in this. With everything she sees, she wants to know the answer to what it means, which is what she tries to show her readers (638).
To classify the works of Annie Dillard would be difficult to say the least (Diana 3). She writes about the meaning of the universe and trying to find answers in it (Barth 636). Her writing includes subjects such as history, theology, ethnography, and natural science, which readers can grow on because of reading her works (Diana 3). Her writing is described as almost photographic. She wants her readers to have enlightenment and give them clarification on the world around them. She influences the readers to believe that nature is the meaning of meaning (Barth 637).
Dillard includes Christianity in most of her works (636). Because she believes God had a plan with putting humans on the planet, she incorporates God and the question why am I here in her work (637). In her book Holy the Firm, she looks at the pain and death in the world. She searches for answers and she comes to the conclusion that there is a connection between the living and God, but this connection has to go through pain to exist. The style of writing is that she is always looking for answers and helps her readers to find them (Barth