“Taking our century’s measure,” for Dillard, means taking count and reminding us of all the unfortunate events that have occurred in the past. She seeks to find out how we deal with news of the death of thousands in a natural disaster many miles away. Of course the answer to that is different for each person. Perhaps Dillard wishes for us to help out and make the world a better place in our own, unique ways. For me personally though, natural disasters that occur around the world do not greatly affect me. Joseph Stalin’s statement, “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic,” is how I feel. 138,000 people drowning in Bangladesh just seems like this big number. The only way I would be affected by an incident like this is if I had known someone who lost their life in the incident. Dillard makes a strong argument about “our century.” She feels that our generation is the one to make a difference. She relates our lives to the sea: “We see generations of waves rise from the sea that made them, billions of individuals at a time; we see them dwindle and vanish. If this does not astound you, what will? Or what will move you to pity?” She is saying that many generations, centuries, and lives have come and go. They have done everything that they were able to do and now it is our job.
Our century is the one that will make a big difference. “Since sand and dirt pile up on everything, why does the world look fresh for each new crowd? As natural and human debris raises the continents, vegetation grows on the piles. It is all a stage – we know this – a temporary stage on top of many layers of stages, but every year a new crop of sand, grass, and tree leaves freshens the set and perfects the illusion that ours is the new and urgent world to know.” Here, Dillard once again supports her argument about “our century.” The people of the past had contributed to the world the best way they could. They did things to the best of their ability. However, they fell a bit short and now it is our job to finish off the job and tie the bow. After having read Dillard’s essay, I was shocked at the statistics presented. It really made me think about what I should be doing to contribute to this world and how I can live my life to the fullest. We are lucky enough to have Annie Dillard present this information to us, making us think about how we can make something of our lives, whereas the 27,000 people who died in a seismic sea wave in Japan were not. I now feel that it is my job to pass on the information presented to us by Annie Dillard so that others too will contribute to this world.
The Essay on Americans Making Shoes Make Good Job
Americans across this beautiful nation do not want to spend time making shoes in this technological society. Americans would not want to also spend even more money on shoes today, so society allows third-world countries to make shoes a lot cheaper, and gives money to meager families. With technology rising rapidly every day, machines could even be made to make shoes, instead of paying people to ...
