Nature In Annie Dillard's Teaching A Stone To Talk

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According to author Annie Dillard, throughout Teaching a Stone to Talk, nature isn’t only aesthetically-pleasing, but serves a greater purpose. The elements of nature do strike her, often, with beauty, but to her and for her, nature isn’t just something that ‘we’ must rely on for beauty, but is something where we can find answers to our most complex debacles, ones that we -- as a society and as individuals -- often struggle with. It’s evident that nature is of great, paramount importance to her, and isn’t something she just sees physical beauty in, but is something she finds answers and clarity in, and believes that ‘we’ can find that in nature, as well. We can understand life, through nature.
Though the idea of nature holding life’s answers isn’t a concept that hasn’t been previously discovered and developed by other intellectuals, Dillard builds this tangible connectivity and trust with the readers through her narrative, story-telling voice. The readers never feels as though he or she is distanced from Dillard, but more-so, she forms her personal experiences in a way tha...

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