Holy The Firm By Annie Dillard

Surely, you have encountered some form of suffering and/or evil during your time on this earth. Did this encounter happen to strengthen you? Perhaps it even created beauty; out of this seemingly, senseless suffering? Maybe not all suffering and evil is senseless…maybe so? Annie Dillard’s shot at the problem of evil and suffering in “Holy the Firm” is the built by the concept of beautiful suffering. The ideology behind Dillard’s concept of “beautiful suffering” is that God is like an artist who allows suffering (or burning) upon his creations. According to Dillard, God allows this suffering as a part of his mysterious art form; in order for physical and/or mental evolvement. Thus, the creation results in a unique beauty in preparation for placement

“Holiness holds forth in time” (Dillard 11) because of this, every single aspect of the life has a divinity (or God) to it. With this connection, Dillard temporarily sooths her concern of evil by relating her life troubles to that of a moth as a unique beauty eventually arrives from its suffering. Annie celebrates the divine presence in all of the listed creatures by using observant vision while, she rejoices at her sense of being a creation of God. Dillard acknowledges the presence of God through the day as she characterizes it a miniature God, who accompanies her to the mountains. Dillard seeks to make sense of a universe flooded with suffering following her recognition and stalking of the divine threw all aspects of

This seemingly senseless act of sudden evil and heart striking suffering leads the author to challenge her supposedly all loving God. Annie begins a deep criticism about God and suffering as she wonders if humans are left in this world to suffer abandoned to days (Dillard 43). The author goes further in her criticism by questioning if Christ’s incarnation was powerless and if God is possibly powerless to care for us (Dillard 43). Despite this criticism of God, Dillard carries a passionate and contradictory relationship with God in faith of a higher plan and environment as she declares “a life without sacrifice is abomination” (Dillard 72). Dillard along with sacrifice; seeks to locate a seemingly lost answer to a mysterious problem to which she cannot seem to answer and/or comprehend. “The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are preformed to whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there” (Dillard, Annie “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”) because “love is greater than knowledge” (Dillard