Jest and Earnest by Annie Dillard

 Summary of the essay Jest and Earnest by Annie Dillard (For comprehension Purpose)

In “Jest and Earnest,” an excerpt from the first chapter of Tinker Creek in Virginia, Dillard describes a shocking event: a frog being drained of its internal organs, reduced to juice by a powerful enzyme of the giant water bug. This event stirs Dillard, provoking her to ask a series of questions about God, nature, beauty, terror, life, and death. The writing relies heavily on an accumulation of verbs in the descriptive section and on a pile-up of questions in the speculative part. Starting with description of something, Dillard moves out through a series of questions and provisional answers into speculation and argument.

About the writer Annie Dillard

AnnieDillard writes out of impassioned awe of the natural world. She both loves and fears it. She is something of a visionary possessing a mystical strain. Her first book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974), won a Pulitzer Prize. In this work, Dillard describes what she saw while patiently observing nature at Tinker Creek in Virginia. She moves from a careful exploration of the natural world to the largest philosophical and theological questions, questions about the design and purpose of the universe, and of man's place in it.

Jest and Earnest Summary

In the opening paragraph of the excerpt, the writer, Dillard begins with the common experience regarding the frogs and their invisible positions. The frogs would hide somewhere and jump over her feet and splash into the water. Such splashing by the frog for other people makes them afraid. For the narrator, it has become an amusement activity. She even observes the changes in the texture of frogs in mud, bunk, water, grass, and so on. When she goes closer to the frog, it begins to shrink like a deflating football. Suddenly, she saw the frog was being sucked by a giant water bug.

According to the writer, there are different methods of eating by animals. Some carnivorous animals eat their prey alive. The common way to defeat the prey is to down or grasp so that the prey cannot run away and they eat the whole. But frogs catch their prey with sticky tongues and eat them.

These small wonders in nature drive her thoughts to God and his creations. She quotes from the Koran to talk about creation. In the Koran, Allah asks “The heaven and the earth and in between, thickest thou I made them in jest?” Thus, Allah shows his surprise in the creation of the universe. He is confused about whether the creator made his creations in jest or earnest.

She invites our attention to the very act of creation and the existence of God. She adds the concept of Pascal. The Latin term 'Deus Absconditus' (hidden God) was used by Pascal, one of the greatest Christian apologists, physicists, and writers. To describe the existence of a creator, he uses the term, Deus Absconditus. He thinks that the essence of god is ever hidden, so our naked eyes cannot view him. Similarly, Einstein describes God as subtle, but not malicious. He further says that nature conceals her mystery by utilizing her essential grandeur, not by her cunning. For Einstein, God is a metaphor for nature and natural order. In other words, Einstein thinks that god is not evil but helpful. His form is so subtle that we cannot see or feel it. Nature is so great because she hides the god with herself.

At last, Dillard writes that God has not absconded but spread as a fabric of spirit.

1. What does Dillard look at closely and then describe for us to see?

Ans: Dillard looks at the close of the happiest activities of the frog. Later, she describes an earnest situation where a frog is violently eaten by a giant water bug.

2. What ideas does Dillard develop out of her seeing?

Ans: She develops ideas out of seeing that jest and earnest are found on the earth. She thinks that cruelty is a mystery. Oppressors and oppressed are created by God.

3. The essay can be thought of in terms of the three creatures described. What are the three creatures? Why is each included? How are the three related in the context of Dillard's idea?

Ans: There are three creatures: a frog killed by a giant water bug, sharks, and a mockingbird. They are each included to show jest and earnest. The frog initially is in jest so that it sprays the water on the narrator later jest is changed into earnest as it is killed by a giant water bug. Then, Dillard moves to a romantic and jest scene made by a mocking bird that romantically falls from a four-story building. At last, Dillard talks about a shark which wonders her by its beautiful moment in the sea. Such sights held her awesome wonders and make her think about the power and beauty hidden in the universe.

4. The first two paragraphs present a description. Following that comes a pair of informative paragraphs and a speculative paragraph. Label paragraphs 6-10 as primarily descriptive, informative, or speculative.

Ans: Paragraph 6 is speculative, Paragraph 7 is a fusion of descriptive and speculative but 8 is only descriptive. The rest of 9 and 10 paragraphs are informative.

5. How does the mockingbird section fit in with what Dillard has shown up to that point?

Ans: Mocking bird section is descriptive and speculative that is fit to Dillard's concern of showing jest and romance of the creature in the universe. She adds this section to show her wonder about its creator.

6. Dillard uses many questions in paragraphs 5 and 6. What is the effect of these questions and what is the tone of the paragraphs?

Ans: The effect of these questions exposes the mystery of the universe and creator. The tone of the paragraphs is serious and mysterious.

7. Examine the verbs in the first three sentences of paragraph 7. Compare the number and kind of verbs with the number and type of verbs in paragraph 2. What do you notice?

Ans: Verbs in the first three sentences of paragraph 7 are in past tense which describes the activities of the mockingbird. In paragraph 2, she has used a simple past to describe the frog activities. In paragraph 7, she has also used simple present and future. But in paragraph 2, all the sentences are in simple past because she did so to describe her visit to a frog.

8. Imagery of light and darkness appears throughout the essay. Explain how the fire of paragraph 10 is related to the darkness of paragraphs 5, 6, and 9.

Ans: The title, ‘Jest and Earnest’ have an opposite meaning that connotes the mystery of the world. The world itself is made with light and dark, happiness and sadness that have become the two sides of the same coin. So they should be faced boldly by human beings. Symbolically, light stands for jest, joy, and happiness while dark is related to sadness. In paragraph 10, as the narrator was cleaning her eyes, she saw a huge fire that was so destructive. In this regard, this fire is not the light but it is dark.

9. Where does the author reveal her identity?

Ans: The author reveals her identity in paragraph five as she says: "That it's rough out there and chancy is no more. Every live thing is a survivor on a kind of extended bivouac. But at some time, we are created'.

10. Has God created the universe in jest or in earnest? Give reasons for your answer.

Ans: I think that universe is created by God is in an earnest way so that there is a panoramic view of the mountain, lake, and river. He has created it seriously but human beings made it polluted. They make atom bombs and other harmful chemicals to destroy the universe.

I also think that to warm living beings, God made the sun. With Sun, living beings get seasons. He has also given sense and mind so that living beings think and act. He sends us a heart that remains with us till we are on the earth. Hearts beat like Seiko Five Watch. He gives sexual pleasure and due to the sense of sex, we make babies. We all know that we have to die but he does not want us to die because he has given us hope. In this way, I think that the universe and its surrounding are made by god seriously.