Suffering In Dillard's The Deer At Providencia

One cold winter night, finally going home after a brutal nine hour shift, I witnessed the suffering of a poor helpless kitten. As a friend and I were driving home after work we came across this small kitten trying to cross the road. Caught in our headlights, my friend chose to run over the poor thing. Unaware if it was alive or not I got out to check on it, as furious as I was then tears began streaming down my face. The poor little creature was still alive with one half of its face smushed by the tire, meowing in agonizing pain, I could only imagine. Yet I chose to hop back in the car and run it over again just to end its pain and suffering. At the end of “The Deer at Providencia” Dillard says “pobrecito” when she walks by the deer the final time. Through out the entire passage Dillard expresses no feeling of sadness or empathy for the

Yet she shows no remorse for the “poor little thing.” (153) Dillard goes on to tell us that expressing any type of sympathy for the deer is ridiculous, because we can not go back and change what has happened, and letting it suffer is purposeful and natural. Admiring the deer as it lay there in agony, Dillard says, “It was ‘pretty,’ delicate of bone like all deer, and thin-skinned for the tropics.” (151) Not only does that show us how weak and helpless the deer is but that it doesn't go unnoticed, which is the saddest part of it all. Especially since everyone else said she had basically no expression on her face while she was watching the deer. (152) Dillard says “pobrecito” when she walks by the deer the final time because she was being sarcastic, considering she knew it was sad but had learned to show no remorse since suffering was a natural thing that we can’t