"Seeing"

Annie Dillard’s non-fiction essay, “Seeing,” is an introduction to a unique philosophical theory that describes the ways in which humans go about seeing their daily interactions in life. It touches upon the many ways humans can see life, how to properly see and the elusive beauty within nature. Dillard changes her audience’s ideas and perspectives about seeing. She also gives her audience an incentive to see in a new way as they go about their daily tasks through her mostly-ordinary anecdotes about her experiences in Tinker Creek. In her writings about Tinker Creek, she emphasizes the importance of taking in your surroundings and really looking at them to be able to find the hidden beauty. She touches upon the fact that most humans do not properly see because they are not really looking.
Although Dillard has written “Seeing” in the form of a non-fiction essay, it seems as if “Seeing” is a fictional piece of work, because of her extensive and bold use of style, language and anecdotes about her childhood and the year she spent at Tinker Creek in Roanoke, Virginia. Rather than using ethos to argue her case with her impressive background in the field of writing, she effectively uses pathos to argue her case by playing upon the emotions of her readers with anecdotes to which most readers can relate. She brings out feelings of like nostalgia, happiness and peacefulness in "Seeing".
Ultimately, Dillard’s case is effective because she affects the reader. She uses her words to make the reader see in new ways and to learn to observe things carefully in order to catch different elements and new perspectives. Through the use of her style and pathos she is able to relate to the reader, change the reader and share her experiences at Tinker Creek in an informative but still interesting and enjoyable way.