Annie Dillard (1945-present) is an American who integrated the complex ideas of nature and sight in 1974 in the book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. In the book, the author notes her ideas about sight and appreciate the natural world while delving into the meaning and understanding of the world and life using visions. The second chapter of the book is “Seeing” which shows a new way of seeing and thinking about the world about the way humans perceive it. In a bid to illustrate how people see the world, the authors showed various ways in which light and darkness affect sight and how the mind processes sight. Most people automatically assume that seeing is one of the greatest abilities that they possess. From such a view, the blind people are left out (Dillard 25). However, based on the findings of Dillard, it is evident that there is more to see that than meets the eye. The book unfolds the need for people to look carefully through separate lenses to establish that seeing nature has a different perspective: horrible and careful. Annie Dillard’s book reiterates the need for people to notice small things in life that matters considering that most people go about their lives daily without realizing different gifts the world has to offer. Thus, people are miss both the exciting opportunities and challenges. Based on Dillard’s narrative, the way people observe to define their lives determines how they live, look deeper, and avoid superficiality. The paper aims to focus on chapter 2, “Seeing,” to coin various ideas encompassing the meaning of sight and light.
The Concept of Seeing and Looking
In Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, the author tries to justify how people see and perceive their surroundings. When the author talks of seeing, she means something that goes beyond the obvious. On the other hand, looking goes beyond seeing. When looking at an object, not just seeing it but seeing it as if it is the first time, it means seeing it for all that it entails. In some cases, people see but not with their eyes, and if such people were to feel something deeper within themselves, then it would not be attributed to any senses (Dillard 18). Seeing in such cases means an adequate understanding of what view means to the individual in question. To some extent, seeing is considered a close synonym for understanding and appreciation. In Dillard’s book, seeing means appreciating. However, sometimes what people go through life without seeing because they are ungrateful. On the other hand, one cannot appreciate unless they understand the need.
Small things will never make any meaning unless people look at them closely. According to Dillard, seeing means asking people to start looking at small things around them and when people look at things with a close eye, then there would be more happiness. People picture of the world is processed through the visual nerve system within the brain, which based on the findings of Dillard if that is the case of what people see, then what people see is not exactly what they see. Consequently, it is rather the brains that carry out the role of interpreting the world (Dillard 22). From the analysis, it is possible to see something but see something else due to misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Therefore, the ability to see needs to be compared based on the scales in the eye. Nonetheless, in her book, the author notes that the process of looking might be risky based on her experience: falling from the cleft while watching the migration of hawks. From the book, the author had serious thinking of seeing, which brought her mental dizziness.
Ways of Seeing
Most people live in lack to notice and appreciate the gift of sight in life. By failing to cherish the gift of seeing and using it properly, there are many discoveries which are left unfound. In the book, the author revealed that nature and other small things which people are unconsciously blind about and have failed to appreciate are important in life. Seeing is an important process of exploring the ideas of what it means to see properly the world. According to Dillard, people should view the world with less involvement of the eye to enable capturing the things that would otherwise go unnoticed (Dillard 21). Scientists have tried to ways through which people view nature with Dillard persuading her audience to her way of seeing, which focuses more on the artificial instead of natural. There are two forms of seeing revealed in the text: seeing from which vision is considered pure sensation unencumbered by meaning and seeing is considered pure sensation unencumbered by meaning.
In one aspect, there is no vision while the other vision determines what an individual see. In the text, the author used a case of the blind people to bring out the difference between the two ways. In the case, the blind sees for the first time after undergoing cataract surgery. The blind people have no idea of the depth, space, or distance. Therefore, they depend on touch. When their sight is restored, they will continue relying on their sense of touch to find out more about the nature of the world (Dillard 34). For these newly sighted individuals, vision is important and reflects a pure sensation that involve imagining the meaning. To expound on the idea, the Dillard talked of light, darkness, and shadow and how people see them, their significance, and the experience of the newly sighted with each of them. These factors remain oppressive to the newly sighted, as they represent a new vision for them, which is also considered a pure sensation that in unencumbered by meaning. There is another level of seeing which the author refers to as letting go. Seeing also involves analyzing and prying.
Seeing, Understanding, and Discovering
Dillard, in the whole idea about sight, she revealed the need to appreciate the natural world while highlighting the meaning and the significance to understand both the world and life through vision. In her explanation, Dillard users her childhood experience to compare various ways through which people see. Dillard is much interested in seeing nature citing that the appearance of nature is a penny and gift that requires appreciation. Moreover, in the book, the definition of happiness is based on what people see. Thus, failing to observe closely means blocking one’s source of joy (Dillard 18). The author also noted that there is no to seeing than just for happiness since it plays important role to understand the world. Whenever human vision is impaired by darkness, as opposed to the possibility of blinding, then there is trepidation associated with a skewed understanding of the nature cloaked in the unbalanced values. As a result, there is a temporary erasing of people’s ground to have the most appropriate and peaceful reality.
Dillard remained wary of her inability of keeping illusions of her vision. Consequently, she noted that people who have always used their sights to see could not reverse their understanding of the way shadows assist in revealing distance and space. Dillard also claimed that color patches are important in revealing how the world exists. Therefore, in understanding space and distance using light and shadow, Dillard reiterated that it is the actual observation of the world. Considering that sight is only a template, other senses used by humans for a window into discovering reality and gaining an understanding of the world (Dillard 20). Each person has the gift of sight, although the blind use vision to conceptualize their world. Sight is a gift that needs to be used properly. According to Dillard, all humans should cherish their sights as gifts since they are the determinants of discovery. If people fail to use their sights, many discoveries would be left unfound.
The Natural Obvious and Artificial Obvious
According to Dillard, what people see right away is the natural obvious, which involves noticing things right away because they are in plain sight and people are used to seeing them daily without any thoughts or analyze whatever they perceive in their environment. Most people often succeed in seeing the natural obvious, which involves seeing what a person expects to see. On the other hand, seeing closely and noticing the unexpected things is the artificial obvious, which Dillard associate with happiness. Artificial obvious is hard to see (Dillard 31). The idea envisioned in Dillard’s understanding of artificial obvious is that it represents the opposite of a personal idea of the accepted expectancy of how something looks like, thus the obvious. Since it involves observing outside what is considered obvious, artificial obvious contributes to more discovery, which in turn yields greater rewards and enjoyment. The idea behind the natural obvious is that the person is used to the environment already and is prevented from noticing other things, which Dillard refers to the unexpected.
Seeing as a Verbalization
According to Dillard, seeing is a matter is a verbalization unless there is a shift in attention towards the things passing before the eyes. The author used the concept of verbalization to establish how objects are perceived. Essentially, Dillard believed that seeing was not about considering the objects for what they were but instead focusing on every detail of the object for further analysis. The key to effective observation is a description of what people see (Dillard 32). Dillard used a case of a blind man at a baseball game without a radio or play-by-play analyst. Naturally, people do not expect the man to have an idea of what was happening. However, through verbalization, the blind man would be involved in the game based on the sounds around.
Conclusion
Regardless of whether there is the correct way to see, it is evident that it is both personal and experiment. In addition, Dillard’s book revealed that sight depends on what people are used to, are willing to learn, tap into, and not put efforts into. Based on the analysis, seeing is a deep process, and Dillard dissects the process of seeing, she reveals its significance on the discovery and understanding of the world. The analysis also noted that to be appreciative of the sight, one needs to understand the processes involved especially in the relationship between seeing and happiness.
Work Cited
Dillard, Annie. "Chapter 2: Seeing." Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 2016, pp. 16-37.
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