Comparing Stunt Pilot by Dillard and Spring by Ehrlich
Comparing Stunt Pilot by Dillard and Spring by Ehrlich
“The Stunt Pilot” by Annie Dillard and “Spring” by Gretel Ehrlich are two very different essays and I enjoyed one and not the other. “The Stunt Pilot” was much more engaging and you felt as if you got into the story. “Spring” was sporadic and I felt as if the essay kept jumping from one thought to the next. Throughout these two essays, the reflection was a lot the same but the tone and voice were very different from one another.
Annie Dillard’s essay was a great look into the stunt pilots world. Her tone was light but serious at the same time. Her themes include the beauty, violence and mystery of nature. She uses great detail throughout the essay and I felt that I could actually see the plane as she wrote about it. She talks about how beauty is in the eye of the beholder and how a stunt pilots job is really about art. Dillard’s use of details and descriptions are very ironic and vivid and it speaks of a life on the edge. She uses powerful details such as “…very high until he was barely visible as a mote, and then seemed to fall down the air, diving headlong, and streaming beauty in spirals behind him.” Another great detail is, “We stuck the to plane’s sides like flung paint. All the blood in my body bulged on my face; it piled between my skull and skin. Vaguely I could see the chrome sea twirling over Rahm’s head like a baton, and the dark islands sliding down the skies like rain.” In “The Stunt Pilot” there is danger and power everywhere yet everything is so peaceful and graceful. It is somewhat of a paradox. This essay treated us to a deeper insight into the human world and the natural world.
Gretel Ehrlich’s essay, for me, was a little harder to understand. I felt as if it jumped from one idea to the next too much. Throughout it all she did have great reflection and ideas. Her tone was very depressing and a little sad. She speaks of things that most people do not like to talk about. Ehrlich says “how fragile death is, how easily is opens up into...