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Lili
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Nov 23, 2020 06:16PM
Which specific passages in Dillard's book struck you as significant- or disturbing, profound, interesting, amusing, sad? Why was it unforgettable?
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The passage "China" was most interesting to me. I found this distinctive because of the imagery Dillard used in describing the clay soldiers. On pages 14-15 she uses phrases such as "The clay people, came crawling from the deep ground," and "The earth was yielding these bodies, these clay people: it erupted them forth." This imagery really helps the reader visualize whats happening in the story and gets the reader get more attached as if they are in the novel themselves.
Personally, the passage about the distortion of current day news and media interested me the most. On page 32 Dillard says "I smell the rat, but cannot walk away". She knows that the news is all propaganda but she feeds into it by watching. Then on page 33, she begins to talk about a fellow in a "blue lit cave". He asks "How do you stand the wind out here?" she responds "I don't! I read consumer reports every month!" (33). At first, this conversation sounded like absolute nonsense to me. However, as I began to look further into it I started to understand. The fellow in the cave represents the brainwashed masses and the wind represents reality. He asks her how she deals with reality without being distracted by the media and television. She responds by saying she doesn't, she eventually feeds into it. The originality of this passage will always stick with me.
Jon wrote: "The passage "China" was most interesting to me. I found this distinctive because of the imagery Dillard used in describing the clay soldiers. On pages 14-15 she uses phrases such as "The clay peopl..."I agree! The imagery is what makes that passage so disturbing. But, I also believe that her reaction to seeing these clay soldiers is very significant. On page 15, she said "I seemed to see our lives from the aspect of eternity. I seemed long dead and looking down". The soldiers' lives seemed everlasting even though they were embodied in clay. Looking at these figures who used to be breathing, living and existing that are now hardened, sent her into a state of shock. She was so astonished that she felt as if she was isolated and as if all the other archeologists disappeared. Dillard's reaction is so unforgettable because she viewed the clay sculptures as living beings.
I found the passage about numbers in the first chapter (p 48) to be very significant and profound. I feel it was so unforgettable because it really makes you think about death and reality more than you are used to doing. Dillard brought up mass death in Bangladesh and how it would be hard to imagine 138,000 people drowning. These people are now reduced to numbers and statistics. She makes you think about if the living really care about the dead or does everyone just eventually get reduced to a number.
The passage numbers specifically in chapter three was very significant to me and stood out. Dillard questions the value of a single person during this chapter, explaining that "there are maybe nine galaxies for each of us - eighty billion galaxies" (72). She then presents the quote "one death is a tragedy; a million deaths are a statistic" (75) which in my opinion is one of the most profound quotes in the entire book because it changed my perspective on life and the value of a an individual. The sad yet true reality is we are basically just groups of people that walk the same earth that past generations once did.
In this book, the scene that stuck in my head throughout the entire book was the scene about birth. On page 38 Dillard says, "The nurse shows the father how to swaddle him. 'Your forty minutes old,' the father says, 'and crying already'". This whole scene was dedicated to showing the significance and purity of a baby, and the emotions that this little life causes. It really stuck to me because at one point all humans were those babies, who were causing so much stress and joy at the same time. And we were all at that stage of vulnerability and innocence and that is something that amazes me.
Jessica wrote: "The passage numbers specifically in chapter three was very significant to me and stood out. Dillard questions the value of a single person during this chapter, explaining that "there are maybe nine..."I feel all of the passages titled "numbers" are extremely impactful on people and that was Dillards reason for including them. By using numbers Dillard is able to convey jarring statistics to the reader in a way the reader can understand. Numbers are something simple that gives the reader perspective into an otherwise hard to understand senario to comprehend.
Vincent wrote: "I found the passage about numbers in the first chapter (p 48) to be very significant and profound. I feel it was so unforgettable because it really makes you think about death and reality more than..." Also in this passage the author makes it clear that the dead will always out number the living. Dillard says that "The dead will always outnumber the living," (49) and that "people who have ever lived on Earth run from 70 billion" (49). She says this to put in perspective that death is apart of life and you can never escape it and it really shows how long humans have been on the Earth considering there has been a total of 70 billion people.
Gabriella wrote: "In this book, the scene that stuck in my head throughout the entire book was the scene about birth. On page 38 Dillard says, "The nurse shows the father how..."Adding on Dillard mentioned the stress and emotions that come with child birth. I think its important she included this stage of life in her book because birth is the most vulnerable and pure a human will ever be in their entire life. "Id just as soon not go through that again, ever," says the mother to the air at large" (40). This stood out to me because all of the pain and stress that comes along with childhood, mothers will continue to put themselves through it because the beauty of birth outweighs the pain. Many woman will say it is the greatest pain they've ever endured, yet they would do it all over again in a second which I think speaks volumes
Jessica wrote: "The passage numbers specifically in chapter three was very significant to me and stood out. Dillard questions the value of a single person during this chapter, explaining that "there are maybe nine..."I agree, this passage is definitely profound and an eyeopener. The way that humans value one life over many is very interesting. On page 75, she goes on to say "'How can an individual count?''' compared to every other person in the world. It's easy for humans to picture and hear of millions dying, but hard to hear of one person in their life dying. She talks about this idea earlier in the book too, she says "Do we believe the individual is precious... My children? Your children? their children? Of course" (59). But then goes on to ask if we believe that the lives of 250,000 Karen tribespeople who live in Thailand, are important. The sad truth is we do not think of mass human deaths around the world as complex and important individuals who died. Instead, we label them as numbers.
Gabriella wrote: "In this book, the scene that stuck in my head throughout the entire book was the scene about birth. On page 38 Dillard says, "The nurse shows the father how to swaddle him. 'Your forty minutes old,..."I agree with you, the same scene was one that stuck in my head no matter how far along I was in the book. I think it was so significant to me because it was something I could understand and relate to. All of us have been those babies, just born and all bundled up to begin life. It stuck out to me because every person is different but we all share one thing in common and it's how our life starts. As the story continued the narrator visited the "neonatal intensive care" seeing babies only needing "an ounce more weight to go home" (41). This impacted me because this is a real life scenario. Everyday babies are going in and out of intensive care after just being born and it helps the reader to be more thankful for the life they have been given.
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Vincent wrote: "I found the passage about numbers in the first chapter (p 48) to be very significant and profound. I feel it was so unforgettable because it really makes you think about death and reality more than..."I think this scene really stuck in my head because life and death are such crazy concepts to actually think about. And times where mass deaths occurred is something so sad and powerful to think about. Another quote similar to this one is, " what were you doing on April 30, 1991, when a series of waves drowned 138,000 people?" (page 107) This is also about a mass death, from a different cause, but it makes us really think and contemplate about death. And really try to comprehend the amount of innocent lives ripped away in a matter of minutes.
Jake wrote: "The passage that stood out to me the most was the first passage in the book called birth. This passage caught my attention because it shows that birth is beautiful and rewarding, sometimes birth ca..."I totally agree with the statement that birth is beautiful and rewarding but however you do get faced with challenges. Anne Dillard wants to get the point across that the fact that life is so rewarding that when you get faced with conflict you don't give up. She helps further this point on page 5 when she states "you could carry them both everywhere, all their lives, in your arms or in a basket, and they would never leave you, not even go to college." She wants us yo understand that since everyone has a purpose in life that you adapt to the life you were given.
One specific passage in Anne Dillard's book that struck me as unforgettable was her passage of thinker on page 84 when she states "Why must we suffer losses?... God never intended us to regard his gifts as our property and that 'in order to impress it on us, he frequently takes away everything, physically and spiritually'...". Anne Dillard is saying that in order for us to really genuinely enjoy and appreciate the things we have in life, we need to have things taken away from us. If everyone got what they wanted then really what is happiness. There is no true happiness without discovering the feeling of disappointment.
It may seem factitious if I say the first page of the book stood out to me, but it truly did. I had never heard of a manual of birth defects and for a while I didn't even think it was true. By Dillard using this piece of text in her writing it helped me to learn and understand more about the people we are surrounded by. I would have never believed there was such a thing as "bird-headed dwarfs" (3) until she cited the name of the manual and continued to talk about what sounded like other fake birth defects. It's impactful to the reader because these are people we have been surrounded by throughout our lives but at the same time feel like we've never seen. It shows you how broad the world is and that there's so much out there we don't know. It brings the reader more in touch with the society they live in.
Gabriella wrote: "In this book, the scene that stuck in my head throughout the entire book was the scene about birth. On page 38 Dillard says, "The nurse shows the father how to swaddle him. 'Your forty minutes old,..." This scene also stood out to me for Dillard's use of comparison. She compares a baby to a parcel when she says, "The nurse returns the parcel to its mother" (39). This is intriguing because describing the baby as a parcel makes it sound like she is giving the mother an object that has no emotions when in reality the mother is receiving a human being.
Vincent wrote: "I found the passage about numbers in the first chapter (p 48) to be very significant and profound. I feel it was so unforgettable because it really makes you think about death and reality more than..."Throughout Anne Dillard's book she explains how birth is a amazing part of life. But what i find extremely disturbing and sad is that she then goes on to prove the point that once you come to your time of death like that you just become a number like Vincent said. She kind of describes how after death you are part of a whole and not so much your own person. On page 122 she states "its filling the universe to the exclusion of all spirits and spirits". She is describing how everyone is considered one after death.
Emily wrote: "One specific passage in Anne Dillard's book that struck me as unforgettable was her passage of thinker on page 84 when she states "Why must we suffer losses?... God never intended us to regard his ..."The way Dillard portrays God's thoughts and actions is very fascinating to me. She shows God as an omniscient being that many other entities don't quite understand. On page 29, Moses asks God why he allowed the Romans to burn the Torah scholar and he replied "keep quiet... this is how I see things". Just like how we need to have things taken away to appreciate them, we need to handle the bad things in our short life so that we are rewarded in our afterlife. God believes that, if we can give up our desires and not cave into greedy decisions, we are worthy of rewards in our next world to come.
Emily wrote: "One specific passage in Anne Dillard's book that struck me as unforgettable was her passage of thinker on page 84 when she states "Why must we suffer losses?... God never intended us to regard his ..."I agree the passage thinker was very significant and helped develop the story. Early on in the book on page 26 she quotes Rabbi Akiva and states "all depends on the preponderance of good deeds. The weight of good deeds bears down on the balance scales." I feel she included this quote to help develop the point that in order to achieve happiness you must overcome selfishness. I really liked the point you made that in order to feel happiness you must also feel disappointment. Once you are successful in this mindset, doing good deeds for others will become a default and you will experience balance in your life. Good deeds balance out the not so good things in people's lives.
Jon wrote: "The passage "China" was most interesting to me. I found this distinctive because of the imagery Dillard used in describing the clay soldiers. On pages 14-15 she uses phrases such as "The clay peopl..."I also think that very strong usage of imagery keeps a scene in the readers head. Because for me on page 110 it says, "A stream ran between rocks; downstream, green shrubs sprang from its banks." This quote continued on to describe a landscape. But this whole scene stayed in my head the entire time because it was so descriptive and really made me imagine if I were there. I think authors like Dillard use imagery as a way to keep there readers engaged.
Emily wrote: "One specific passage in Anne Dillard's book that struck me as unforgettable was her passage of thinker on page 84 when she states "Why must we suffer losses?... God never intended us to regard his ..."I agree if we didn't have to face death no one would appreciate the simple joys of happiness. Although it may seem like a natural emotion it is there to help differentiate the good times from the bad. If we didn't have to suffer losses and go through the feeling of sorrow people would live unmotivated and become useless to society. Dillard explains this thought by saying how we would be "Ordinary beads on a never ending string" (31). If we lived the same routine over and over again what purpose do we have? Although no one finds enjoyment from suffering it helps to add layers to people and help them to become more grateful for the little things in life. The complexity adds to the reason why all of us are here and helps to teach us that we need both the good and the bad to survive.
Lili wrote: "Jessica wrote: "The passage numbers specifically in chapter three was very significant to me and stood out. Dillard questions the value of a single person during this chapter, explaining that "ther..."I feel there is a pattern throughout the book where Dillard questions the way a single human is valued over a large group of humans. Not only is this brought up in the passage "numbers" but also is seen in her passage called "evil". She begins to mention when Emperor Qin buried 260 confucian scholars alive. She states, "Some accounts say he buried 460 confucian scholars alive. It scarcely matters- two hundred here or there. Whatever they and their wives, children, and parents suffered has vanished too, whether he buried alive 260 scholars or 460" (56). Truthfully the exact number really won't matter to us, and is more of a statistic that we reflect on. This will lead the reader to question the value of an individual.
Emily wrote: "Vincent wrote: "I found the passage about numbers in the first chapter (p 48) to be very significant and profound. I feel it was so unforgettable because it really makes you think about death and r..."Yes!! The section "sand" in the book personally affected me the deepest because Dillard was very blunt in the fact that everyone's life will come to an end whether you want it or not. "Earth sifts over things. If you stay still, earth buries you, ready or not. the debris on the tops of your feet or shoes thicken, windblown dirt piles around it , and pretty soon your feet are underground" (122). This was disturbing to me because it sheds light on the fact that one day we will all be swept out and replaced by a new group of beings. On page 124 she states "We live on dead peoples heads." Humans all start life from the same place and will all end up in the same place.
The passage Memoirs of a Cape Breton Doctor really struck me as significant. Dillard said "... but I remembered thinking during the last several minutes that it was hopeless."(pg 35). This reminds me one small thing can happen in your body and your life could be on the line. Also I am remembered during this section that I'm lucky to be born, and to live life to the fullest.
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I agree that this passage is unforgettable because it gets you thinking about death more then you would like to. I found it very interesting when Dillard said, "half of all the dead are babies and children."(48). This is almost disturbing and crazy to me that out of all humans that are dead, half of them are somehow children. This passage also caught my attention when the author mentions that the dead could outnumber the living almost 20 to 1. It is crazy to think that their are billions of living people on earth now, which seems like a lot, but their are up to 20 times as many people dead.
Emily wrote: "One specific passage in Anne Dillard's book that struck me as unforgettable was her passage of thinker on page 84 when she states "Why must we suffer losses?... God never intended us to regard his ..."I also liked this passage and found Teilhard's views interesting because he says god hides himself "to test our love" (p 85). I find it significant how Teilhard see's not being able to see god as something that is a test and it strengthens his beliefs, not weaken them. This was profound to me and I feel it connects to other religious stories in the book and those peoples beliefs.
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I agree that this passage was very interesting also. Often in life you hear people say that you will not appreciate something until its gone, and this passage supports that. It is true that as humans we take many things in this world for granted and we will not appreciate this things until they are gone. Anne Dillard argues, "The doctors of the church explain that the lord deliberately hides himself from us in order to test our love."(85). Anne Dillard states that god tests our love for him by taking away the things that we take for granted and then end up missing.
Dillard focused on an interesting point from Rabbi Pinhas in her passage sand. She explains his thoughts that "There are two kinds of deaths" (126). They say that one death is easy and effortless while the other is tiring and relentless. I don't think anyone really classifies death into categories but these are accurate. Most people experience a calm death or a battle but you don't really hear about an in between. Pinhas shows the reader that death is either a war or serenity. Many people battle for their lives while others accept the defeat. It draws attention to the last few moments before death and makes us think of what we want right before the end, a strong fight or to surrender.
Jake wrote: "The passage that stood out to me the most was the first passage in the book called birth. This passage caught my attention because it shows that birth is beautiful and rewarding, sometimes birth ca..."I also found the first passage very interesting and enjoyable. The quote "it is always a mistake to think your soul can go alone"(pg 8) also shows that no one is alone and there is always path for someone with a disability or not.
Kailee wrote: "Dillard focused on an interesting point from Rabbi Pinhas in her passage sand. She explains his thoughts that "There are two kinds of deaths" (126). They say that one death is easy and effortless w..."To piggy back off your idea, on page 128 it says "'clinging ineradicable flavor"' many people go through hard deaths especially during a time of war. It shows that to live your life to the fullest because at the end of life everything just stops. Enjoy life until the very end, because that could be the hardest part of your life and to just end or you could just pass peacefully.
