Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek

In the book, A Pilgrim at Ticker Creek Annie Dillard abandons herself to solitary to observe nature for a year. However, as she point out, nature is a very now-you-see-it, now-you-don't affair. She refers to the philosophical conundrum about the tree that falls in the forest; "the answer must be that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will sense them. The least we can do is try to be there." The book progresses through the seasons as she talks about different phenomenon. The frog being sucked to death, the swarm of grasshoppers, the praying mantis laying her eggs, even the extremes one would take to ensure survival. As she looses herself into what's in front of her we too find ourselves engulfed in what she sees. Throughout A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Dillard describes numerous experiences she's had in the past, and uses them to express the lessons she learns and bond it's created to nature.

The narrator spends a year just observing the creek and its creatures, which at first is not very easy despite what some philosophers might say; "I have always maintained that if you looked closely enough you could see the wind, the dim, hardly made out, fine debris fleeing high in the air." Though throughout the book she's alone, as the reader we must assume she has human interaction outside the creek, we just don't hear about it unless it's connected with her story. Her tone is indifferent to the solitude though and other than the changing season there is no mention of time. Everything is the present. There are two states she takes on while out, her watchful state, and her unconscious state. In her watchful state she "stalks", whether it be staring down the snake or tracking a muskrat. Her unconscious state however is when she lets go and gets lost in her surroundings, not examining them, but becoming part of them. She becomes "one with nature". Dillard herself says "experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow...consciousness itself does not hinder in the present, it is only a heightened awareness that opens the doors to the present." Her fascination with nature and all the creatures around her, it completely swallows any consciousness of solitude. The creek becomes her world, the creatures her society.

While reading the newspaper on day Dillard says, "I'm getting used to this planet and to this curious human culture which is as cheerfully enthusiastic as it is cheerfully cruel." There's very few times she refers back to the outside world of society. Her attitude though seems pitiful as if there's something she witnesses by the creek is more important than life. She expects us to see the innocence of a puppy, the mosquito on the snake, the butterfly migration and find the same appreciation and lessons she did, thus applying it to our lives. We need to be more self-conscious of the world and release prior