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Essay on Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

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Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, written by Annie Dillard, is a novel based on the writers curiousness about the mystery of God and the world which surrounds her. She is truly baffled by the thought of God and the way his world seems to be evolving. Dillards novel encompasses two main themes. Her first theme is actually a brilliant question; Dillard wonders how there can be a loving and caring God when he has created such a brutal environment. Her second theme is based on the idea that in every aspect of life, both good and bad, there is beauty to be seen. Dillard struggles through the novel in search of factual answers to her questions and proof of a loving and caring God. Annie Dillard …show more content…

"The universe that suckled us is a monster that does not care if we live or die - does not care if itself grinds to a halt. It is fixed and blind, a robot programmed to kill. We are free and seeing, we can only try to outwit it at every turn to save our skins." (p.177)
Dillard conveys here, that the world we are born into is constantly trying to erase us from existence. This proves to Dillard that we as humans mean nothing to nature. We are only small, tiny objects that take up space and do nothing for the earth. We survive primarily by destroying eachother and even ourselves. Not to mention that if and when we do die, since only being such a small part, we would not individually be missed. Through all this, how then can there be a supreme being that is loving, caring and nurturing, when he constructs living beings and creatures to destruct what lives and breathes around them? Dillard seems to desperately try to conjure up reasons to accept God and the way he has created his world, even though killing is an act he has designed. " Of course, many carnivorous animals devour their prey alive. The usual method seems to be to subdue the victim by drowning or grasping it so it can't flee, then eating it whole or in a series of bloody bites. Frogs eat everything whole, stuffing prey into their mouths with their thumbs. People have seen frogs with their wide jaws so

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