Sight Into Insight By Annie Dillard Summary

Usually being able to see is a “spiritual act” and it “symbolizes understanding” (Cirlot 99). Therefore, when you take away the ability of sight, whether it be purposeful or accidental, you take away understanding and acceptance. Both the man from The Road and Natasha Trethewey struggle with accepting their reality for what it is. Their deliberate limited vision-- the choices they make to overlooks their respective bleak realities--, allow them to cope with their world.

1) According to Dillard, lovers and the knowledgeable can see well. Yet she also suggests that those who are knowledgeable on a topic, such as people who have been blind from birth and can suddenly see (due to an opperation), can perhaps view more objectively the world around them, and see it in a way that those with vision from birth cannot. Infants, she says, can see very clearly, for they are viewing the world for the first time, and can observe the colors and the light with no prejudgments, but we forget this experience as we grow older, and only occasionally catch glimpses of this phenomenon.

In the book, The Conscious Reader, there are many stories by many different authors. All these stories are different but at the same time they are alike. They all in some way deal with education. Whether it is using education, gaining education, or giving education, they all have their way to show that education is important.

Annie Dillard’s essay “Sight into Insight” emphasizes how specific moments in time can be interpreted differently, therefore; no two people will be able to compare perspectives on the same situation. Dillard starts her essay off by connecting to the reader through a story she tells “either when she was six or seven years old” (Dillard para.1). For fun Dillard would hide pennies in trees and make signs saying stuff like “SURPRISE AHEAD” or “MONEY THIS WAY” (para.1) to lure people into checking what was exactly inside the tree. The point of this was not to see what kind of people would actually take the time to look, but the mind-blowing thought of how “someone would receive a free gift from the universe”(para.1). Although it all depends on the

To begin with, the author of this autobiography would explain every person’s eyes in great depth, which made it easier to explore how the Holocaust changed numerous people. It is known that sometimes eyes express the feelings that humans may feel incapable of expressing for themselves, which is something Elie Wiesel clearly understood. Right at the beginning of the novel we are introduced to the character Moché the Beadle, who was an extremely joyful person. His eyes were described as being “dreamy” expressing the curiosity and happiness that filled this man’s heart. This continued until one day in which he began telling stories about dreaded thing happening to the people of the Jewish religion. No one believed him, not even Elie, and he was

The use of symbolism such as the physical and emotional meanings of blindness can describe different meanings behind elements of the story. In the critical essay, the author discusses why an author might choose to make a character bling and what it means. Diane Andrews Henningfeld, the author of the critical essay explains, “clearly the author wants to emphasize other levels of sight and blindness beyond physical.” Blindness can be more than just the levels of physical sight and the author wants that to be understood. The author wants to emphasize and make it very clear that other levels of sight and blindness exist like not seeing the beauty in life and being blind to it beyond just being able to see with your eyes. The quote can feel something about the characters traits and how they can be so opposite from their physical abilities. This quote Conveys the facts. People can see in different ways. It is stated that,“although he is blind, he ‘sees’ how to get along with others in profound and important ways. By contrast, the narrator, although sighted, does not see how his isolation damages himself, his wife, and their relationship. He is

Some things take more than just a few glances to have its substance truly disclosed. By transforming into a full-grown person, Lizabeth learns to see things not only by what is on the outside, but grasp what is inside as well. Near the beginning of the story, she recalls one of her childhood days where she and her friends once again adventure off to annoy Ms. Lottie. Once there, however, they find that, “For some reason, we children hated those marigolds. They interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place; they said too much that we could not understand; they did not make sense” (Collier 26). Lizabeth and her thrill-seeking friends are bewildered by the beauty of the marigolds amongst Ms. Lottie’s barren land, causing them to despise it. This conveys the kids as being unable to grasp the true meaning behind the planted marigolds. By using the oxymoron “perfect ugliness” to describe Ms. Lottie’s surroundings, the interference of the “too beautiful” marigolds highlights its value and its symbolism as hope. The significance of this is that by employing the children’s ignorance of the marigolds, it is able to reveal their innocence. It shows how they aren’t yet able to perceive things beyond their surface, to be able to understand things beyond their literal definition like the marigolds. However, this is able to set up the transformation that occurs for Lizabeth to be able to lose her innocence and unveil the author’s argument. At the end of the story, she unleashes her pent-up feelings of the marigolds by destroying it, causing her childhood to vanish and adulthood to begin. As time passes by

This goes along with her motif about nature and how remarkable it is. She provides us with a quote from Einstein which states, "nature conceals her mystery by means of her essential grandeur, not by her cunning" (9). Dillard, by using this quote, takes an abstract thought and creates this image in our heads. She points out how impressive nature is thus nudging her readers to think about nature in its entirety while picturing what she believes to be impressive. "Nature is like one of those line drawings of a tree that are puzzles for children," she also states, "Unfortunately nature is very much a now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t affair" (18-19). She is able to capture these images by comparing nature to a drawing of a tree. She makes her readers aware that if you do not stop and analyze it carefully and thoroughly in the present, making sure you are seeing it for what it truly is, it will quickly pass by and you will miss it. She takes this abstract thought about nature and proceeds to say, "If we were to judge nature by its coming sense or likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed. In nature improbabilities are the one stock in trade" (146). Dillard expresses her own ideas about nature and claims that if society judges nature, we would not believe that it was real. She is trying to make the point that individuals need to stop looking to nature to get answers about the

The deep lines to her face went into a fierce and different radiation. Without warning, she had seen with her own eyes a flashing nickel fall out of the man’s pocket onto the ground” (Welty 20). No camera or reader would know what Phoenix Jackson is seeing with her own eyes unless the narrator had not spoken of it. She is the only one who sees the nickel fall; no one else. A nickel, unimportant to the hunter as evidenced by his carelessness and his lack of awareness that he even was in possession of the coin, is an important thing to Phoenix as exhibited by her quickness to see it even with old and tired eyes. The author included this reference to show that even with a fragile mind and old eyes, Phoenix Jackson sees what is necessary for her survival and responds quickly to it, and even though she feels that she is succumbing to thievery, “God watching me the whole time. I come to stealing.” (Welty 21) she has little, if any remorse. The readers suspects that she keeps the coin for a higher purpose, a Christmas gift for her grandson. “In the paved city it was Christmastime.” (Welty

Most people depend on their sight to guide their path, but what if they lose their sense of sight? What would they do? Emily Dickinson’s vision grew poorer and poorer as she aged due to writing poems in the dim light of the night. She wrote two poems related to sight, but there was a much deeper meaning to the both of them. Sometimes people with the ability of sight are blinded as to someone who is blind can see clearly. People can not always depend on their eyes to lead their path in life.They have to open their soul to lead the way.

What did that tree, leaning out from the bank, all white and lacy, make you think of? She asked. Well now, I dunno, said Matthew. Why a bride, of course- a bride all in white with a lovely misty veil.” (Montgomery, 65-66) It is identified here how nature pleases Anne’s eye. The way in which she is able to take a tree branch and bring it to life by imagining that is connected with something beautiful like a bride. It doesn’t only suggest her inquisitive imagination, but also her intellect. With using the enjoyments of nature to foster a desire, and with her perceptive vision she is capable of imagining the branch as something else. Through its beauty and emphasis on colour she can make a connection that the tree branch can be compared to a bride. It is crucial how Anne doesn’t take the natural sights of Avonlea for granted, because she values the power of self-expression in nature. Through her imagination with nature she is able to seek comfort. This is seen on her first night in Avonlea, when she’s afraid no one will come for her, so she turns to a tree as her home, where she can sleep. She states, “I had made up my mind that if you didn’t come for me and to-night I’d go down the track to that big wild cherry-tree at the bend, and climb up into it to stay all night.” (Montgomery, 64) This scene represents how Anne is reliant on nature. Instead of being afraid that no one has yet to pick her up she uses nature to occupy her time. She is inspired by nature to

Annie also describes the relationships she has with her family and friends using diction. Her mother really cares for her daughter and wanted the best treatment, so she made many sacrifices to please her. Annie wanted glasses and also asked her mother to get her glasses, but the doctor told her mother that carrot juice should be able to improve her eyesight. She says, “my mother, who was waiting for me with a glass of juice from carrots she had just grated and then squeezed, and I would drink it and run back to my chums” (Kincaid 38). The words waiting, grating, and squeezing shows that her mother has a loving heart. She sacrificed her time and effort to make fresh carrot juice for her daughter rather than buying it from somewhere. However, Annie does not realize the care she received from her loving mother. Also, Annie’s mother loves her so much that she couldn’t live without her, but what Annie sees is that her mother wanted to help her pack her belongings so they will never see each other again. Annie describes this moment with “...it is I who have changed, so all the things I used to be and all the things I used to feel are as false as the teeth in my

In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Elie Wiesel is a young boy who struggles to survive after being forced to live in the brutal concentration camp of Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, death and suffering is rampant, but due to compassionate words and actions from others, Elie is able to withstand these severe living conditions and overcome the risk of death in the unforgiving Auschwitz. As shown through the actions and words of characters in Night, compassion, the sympathetic pity for the suffering or misfortune of others is critical to the human experience because it enables humans to empathize with each other, empathizing which allows us to feel the need to assist others which can often be vital for survival.

She discusses those who have recently acquired the ability to see and how this affects how they interpret the new world around them. With no preconceived knowledge or ideas about what they are seeing, “vision is pure sensation unencumbered by meaning” (24). While our minds use what we already know to interpret and comprehend what we see, those who see for the first time have no previous knowledge telling them what they are looking at. Their minds are blank canvases, interpreting each line, shape, and shadow, attempting to piece every aspect of what their eyes are seeing to understand the full picture. While we would simply glance at an object, allowing our mind to fill in the details of what we are seeing based on the image we already have in our minds, the newly sighted do not have the ability to see in concepts as we do. Most of us cannot “remember ever having seen without understanding” (27) yet we still have the ability to learn how to see like this to an extent. Artistic talent aside, upon asking a newly sighted person and an artistically untrained person who had been seeing their whole life to draw the same object, the newly sighted person would have the ability to draw what they were truly seeing while the average person would draw what they knew they were seeing, ignoring the true shape and shadows of the object in front of them. Upon asking someone who has been trained

Carver is well known for his short stories and poetries. Among his works, “Cathedral” is considered one of the best, favorite, and most optimistic and the most developed. Carver’s story revolves around the theme of seeing and looking. Most people believed they could not live without cathedrals which brought them closer to their God. Similarly, people place so much importance to the physical eyesight and tend to think they can hardly live without it. Robert, a blind man, is invited to the narrator’s home and the narrator is shown troubled by Roberts’s disability. Later on, the narrator is amazed to see the blind smoking despite having even thought of helping him with his drink earlier on (Carver 516- 524). The latter brought to attention that as much as natural looking is essential, more essential is the ability to see or to visualize things. The writer explains that it might be tougher to be without eyesight; however, it is possible to live without it and make the best of what else one has, more so the brain. Visualizing brings out a better view of the significance of life and things surrounding us.