Analysis Of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim At Tinker Creek

To kill a mockingbird can mean many things. It’s the title of a book that has been bought 40 million times. But, it also has a definition. To kill a mockingbird means to destroy innocence. The theme of my literary analysis is mockingbirds. Mockingbirds in TKAM are innocent things tainted by the skewed society of Maycomb. Some of these mockingbirds are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book set in a small Alabama town in the 1930’s. The main character and narrator is Jean Louise Finch, but is almost always called by her nickname, Scout. Scout, her brother, and her summer friend Dill get into all kinds of mischief while living in the racist society of a 1930’s Alabama town. Scout’s dad, Atticus, is a prominent lawyer in Maycomb and is appointed to a controversial case, and is defending a black man. Scout and her brother, Jem go through many troubles and learn many lessons from the days leading up to, and during the trial. The trail makes their family some friends and a lot of enemies. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a story of courage and despair. Throughout TKAM, mockingbirds are used as an example of something innocent being tainted by the skewed society of TKAM. Some great examples of these are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children.

Everyone has a favorite animal. Some admire lions and tigers because they exude dominance and power. Others prefer dogs and cats because they make great companions. Although there are thousands of animals to extol, most would not even think about weasels. These creatures are small, overlooked, and have a negative connotation. Calling someone a weasel is an insult: it means they are untrustworthy. However, in the essay, “Living Like Weasels,” Annie Dillard writes about how an encounter with a weasel changed her life. Dillard uses parallelism and unique rhetorical strategies to show how people should find inspiration to live life in a more fulfilling manner.

The intriguing novel, To Kill A Mockingbird is written by the prestigious author Harper Lee. Lee has utilised the lifestyle and attitudes towards ‘African-Americans" in the 1930's to create a novel which presents the reader with Lee's attitudes and values. The dominant reading of the novel is focused on the issues of racial prejudice, but there are also a number of other alternative and oppositional readings. Examples of this are the Marxist and feminist readings which can be applied to the text.

Jem and Scout, throughout “To Kill A Mockingbird,” learn to consider things from other people’s perspectives. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, says “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in” (Lee 39). They learn this through experiences with their neighbor Boo Radley as they mature beyond their years. At the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout make fun of Boo and assume that all of the rumors going around about him are true. However, later on in the story the children grow an admiration for Boo and learn to understand him. As they matured, Jem and Scout naturally learned many life lessons of appreciation, respect, and courage

As Stephen King once said, “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Harper Lee, Jean Louise Finch, a young girl who also goes by Scout, experiences many things such as racism, friends, and family. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who is sacrificing his reputation to defend a black man, Tom Robinson. Scout and her friends take it upon themselves to uncover the mystery of Boo Radley. In this book the mockingbirds represent innocence. Many characters take on the role of the “mockingbird". Exploring Lee’s title, to kill a mockingbird is to kill innocence.

Lee implies that people learn lessons through life experiences that school can ever teach. Throughout this novel, Atticus taught his kids many lessons that was hard for them to hear at times, but it later on helped them in the story. Or it helped them grow up and mature. On page 40 of To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus was explaining to Scout that Miss.Caroline was new and didn’t know anyone, and she especially didn’t know the Cunningham’s story, Atticus states, “Atticus said… but if Walter and I had put ourselves in her shoes we’d have seen it was an honest mistake on her part” (40). This quote by Atticus is meant to explain to Scout that Miss. Caroline just made an honest human mistake. He tried to get Scout to realize that if he put herself in Miss.Caroline’s shoes then she might better understand the confusion. Obviously you can’t really be in her shoes, but he said it figuratively to show her why it was important to give her another chance, or at least try to be nice and listen. Atticus taught this to Scout at home later on that night. At her school after that she tried to just get by in her class. Lee also shows mainly throughout that the school system doesn’t help when it comes to teaching children life lessons. As shown in the earlier quote Atticus, had told Scout to jump in Walter’s shoes, and walk around in it. This other quote shows how Scout actually takes into consideration of Atticus’ words, and chooses to not bother Jem because she tried to imagine what it had

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (pg. 119.) Miss Maudie spoke the previous quote with deep thought going into each and every word. She wasn't just trying to teach Scout a lesson, but she wanted there to be a powerful meaning behind it. Miss Maudie's main purpose was to stress that you shouldn't kill something that is doing no harm. Everyday "mockingbirds" are killed, broke down, and mistreated by society.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, written by Annie Dillard, is a novel based on the writers

Holden is in a cab on his way to Ernie’s and after he asks the driver with Holden. When Holden asks why he is “sore” about it, the cab driver denies being upset. Holden seems to constantly anger people throughout the story due to his blunt way of addressing topics and his inability to see the positive side of things. The cab driver on the other hand, is clearly upset, but is instead choosing to be passive aggressive by denying his anger. I do not like when people are passive aggressive. I would much rather someone talk to me directly and maturely if they are upset.

Annie Dillard decided to name her essay Living Like Weasels in order to express her respect of the weasels’ way of life and how someday she hopes to emulate it. Annie first expresses her respect for the weasel when she recalls the story of the eagle and the weasel’s skull, this example showed how obedient a weasel is and how it sticks to its instincts. Next Annie shows her desire to live like a weasel when she compliments them repeatedly on their simple way of life. And lastly and perhaps the most striking way Annie shows us that she wants to live like a weasel is when she actually imagines her self grabbing a weasel and being brought down underground to live with them. While the tile of the essay might first be quite shocking, after reading

Think of this, when you were younger you probably had a teddy bear, right? Think of you childhood teddy bear. Now put human teeth on him/her, it seemed weird didn't it. Dillard does a lot of this in her book “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”. She describes things in her memoir with descriptions or words that shouldn’t apply to the subject/object that she is in the process of talking about. For example, in the last chapter of “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” she is sitting on a grassy in the winter and reflecting on her time at tinker creek when she says, “I fingered the winter killed grass, looping it round the tip of my finger like hair, ruffling its tips with my palms.”(Dillard, 264) Now, I don’t know about you but “fingered” and grass don’t seem to go

TKM Literary Analysis First draft A only father must lawyer a black man against a white man's word and live with the consequences of doing so in a town overrun with racist stereotypes. In To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus Finch lives in a small town (Maycomb,Alabama) with his two children Jem and Scout who he treats with respect as if they were adults. Certain people believe that by respecting his children in this way he is being insensitive or unloving towards his children. Atticus is not being insensitive or unloving and teaching his kids bad habits, however he just shows his love in his own way.

Annie Dillard opens Pilgrim at Tinker Creek mysteriously, hinting at an unnamed presence. She toys with the longstanding epic images of battlefields and oracles, injecting an air of holiness and awe into the otherwise ordinary. In language more poetic than prosaic, she sings the beautiful into the mundane. She deifies common and trivial findings. She extracts the most high language from all the possible permutations of words to elevate and exalt the normal. Under her pen, her literary devices and her metaphors, a backyard stream becomes a shrine. Writing a prayer, Dillard becomes an instrument through which a ubiquitous spirit reveals itself. Yet in other cases, she latches on to an image

The narrative voice in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is Dillard herself. In the book, all of these observations and musings are her own, interspersed with quotes and references to other authors, who presumably have shaped how she views things. She sets herself up as an explorer, an observer, quite the extensive reader, and a bit of a philosopher. In the book Dillard uses many metaphors to describe the world around her.

The story, in the eyes of two innocent children Scout and her brother Jem, of the discrimination and hypocrisy throughout the town. Maycomb County, Alabama, faces an African American’s injustice while the children learn valuable lessons from their father, Atticus and their housemaid Calpurnia, during the Great Depression. All the while, we are learning from it. To Kill a Mockingbird teaches us the lessons of morale, justice and equality.