What an Essay Can Do
From What an Essay Can Do
Annie Dillard (1945- )
In some ways the essay can deal in both events and ideas better than the short story can, because the essayist—unlike the poet—may introduce the plain, unadorned thought without the contrived entrances of long-winded characters who mouth discourses. This sort of awful evidence killed “the novel of idea.” (But eschewing it served to limit fiction’s materials a little further, and likely contributed to our being left with the short story of scant idea.) The essayist may reason; he may treat of historical, cultural, or natural events, as well as personal events, for their interest and meaning alone, without resort to fabricated dramatic occasions. So the essay’s materials are larger than the story’s.
The essay may deal in metaphor better than the poem can, in some ways, because prose may expand what the lyric poem must compress. Instead of confining a metaphor to half a line, the essayist can devote to it a narrative, descriptive, or reflective couple of pages, and bring forth vividly its meanings. Prose welcomes all sorts of figurative language, of course, as well as alliteration, and even rhyme. The range of rhythms in prose is larger and grander than that of poetry. And it can handle discursive idea, and plain fact, as well as character and story.
The essay can do everything a poem can do, and everything a short story can do—everything but fake it. The elements in any nonfiction should be true not only artistically—the connections must hold at base and must be veracious, for that is the convention and the covenant between the nonfiction writer and his reader. Veracity isn’t much of a drawback to the writer; there’s a lot of truth out there to work with. And veracity isn’t much of a drawback to the reader. The real world arguably exerts a greater fascination on people than any fictional one; many people at least spend their whole lives there, apparently by choice. The essayist does what we do with our lives; the essayist thinks about actual things. He can make sense of them analytically or artistically. In either case he renders the real world coherent and meaningful; even if only bits of it, and even if that coherence and meaning reside only inside small texts.
Questions for Discussion
1. Which technique does the author employ to focus the reader’s attention on the specific topic of the passage?
A) use of parallel structure
B) identifying herself with her audience
C) beginning each paragraph with the same subject
D) use of passive voice
E) use of anecdote
2. Based on a careful reading of the first paragraph, the reader can conclude that the author blames the death of the “novel of ideas” on
A) real life and situations
B) simplicity
C) appeal to philosophy
D) reliance on historical data
E) artificiality
3. The primary rhetorical strategy the author uses to develop the first paragraph is
A) process
B) narration
C) description
D) cause and effect
E) definition
4. Near the end of the third paragraph, Dillard states, “The essayist does what we do with our lives; the essayist thinks about actual things. He can make sense of them analytically or artistically.” The most probable reason for the author choosing to write two separate sentences rather than constructing a single, longer sentence using a listing, is
A) to reinforce cause and effect
B) both subjects are of equal importance, although separate processes
C) to create a parallel situation
D) to contrast the two ideas
E) to highlight the criticism of fictional writing
5. In paragraph 3, in the sentence beginning with “The real world . . .,” the word “There” refers to
A) the fictional world
B) novels
C) poetry
D) “the real world”
E) short stories
6. The primary rhetorical strategy the author uses to develop the second paragraph is
A) contrast and comparison
B) narration
C) argument
D) description
E) analogy
7. In terms of her position on her subject, the author can best be categorized as
A) an adversary
B) a critic
C) an advocate
D) an innovator
E) an artist
8. An example of parallel structure is found in which of the following lines taken from the passage?
A) “But eschewing it served to limit fiction’s materials a little further, and likely contributed to our being left with the short story of scant
idea.”
B) “The essay may deal in metaphor better than the poem can, in someway because prose may expand what the lyric poem must compress.”
C) “The elements in any nonfiction should be true not only artistically . . . the connections must hold at base . . .”
D) “. . . that is the convention and the covenant between the nonfiction writer and his reader.”
E) “In either case he renders the real world coherent and meaningful; even if only bit of it, and even if that coherence and meaning reside only inside small texts.”
9. The contrast between the short story writer and the essayist is based on which of the following?
A) reflection
B) presentation
C) fundamental reality
D) content
E) clarity of purpose
10. The tone of the passage can best be described as
A) impartial and critical
B) condescending and formal
C) candid and colloquial
D) clinical and moralistic
E) confident and informative