Jest and Earnest by Annie Dillard
American
essayist Annie Dillard, who was born in 1945, is the author of the essay Jest
and Earnest. The imagery in her essay shifts from a description of a heinous
act to a description of beauty, and then to a vision of both. She begins by
describing to us a scene from "jest," in which frogs of all kinds are
lying in various positions. However, as the essay progresses, she describes a
more "earnest" scenario in which a frog is violently devoured by a
giant water bug.
She talks about the horrifying dinner, in which
the gigantic water beetle snatches the frog first before liquefying its
internal parts for ingestion. She can use terminology that would make even the
most enthusiastic scientists wince to clearly explain to us the gruesome attack
and subsequent devouring of the frog before moving on to an act of beauty
represented by a mockingbird. By incorporating her emotions and observations
into her writing, she may arouse the reader's empathy and aid them in
comprehending her viewpoint on nature's brutality. She engages the reader and persuades
them to consider the same issues she is by using words like "we" and
"you."