A flood alters the landscape, and both people and animals react with viciousness and ugliness. The narrator feels a shift as summer comes on. Seeking God becomes synonymous with seeking the present and exploring the patterns and connections among all living things.Ĭhapters 9-13 focus on the cruel side of nature. As she observes her goldfish, she is struck by the similarities between blood and chlorophyll.

Everything she encounters becomes a lesson in meaning. She considers how beauty, texture, and intricacy contribute to the complexity of creation. She recaptures the experience again at Tinker Creek. Self-consciousness inhibits her ability to engage with the present she actively practices getting lost in the moment and dissolving her sense of self. As soon as the feeling surfaces, it vanishes. She looking at the mountains and pets a small beagle puppy, and her sense of self dissolves, leaving her keenly aware of everything around her at this moment. In Chapters 6-8, the narrator feels immersed in the present while outside a gas station. The snakeskin becomes a metaphor for time and the seasons, a never-ending loop of the present. The narrator describes Tinker Creek in winter as she searches for praying mantis eggs and collects a knotted snakeskin. One girl was delighted by the image of “the tree with the lights in it” (31), lost in wonder at the way the sun shone through the leaves.Ĭhapters 3-5 further assert that both the beauty and cruelty in nature express truth about the divine.

The narrator recounts several stories of blind individuals who underwent cataract surgery and found themselves overwhelmed by the reality of sight. Chapter 2 centers on the sense of sight and how light and shadow affect and shape perception. She is overcome by the viciousness of the water bug’s act.

In Chapter 1, the narrator describes watching a giant water bug suck the life out of a frog, revealing how nature can be both awesome and terrifying. Because the book blends memoir, nonfiction, and elements of the imagination, this guide will utilize “the narrator” rather than Dillard’s name. Dillard uses first person narration to describe her experiences in the valley of Virginia’s Blue Ridge.

Pilgrim at tinker creek sparknotes