Why Me???

In Annie Dillard’s personal narrative, A Deer at Providencia (1982), she defines the true meaning of pain and suffering. The author develops the work by first telling the story of a deer tied to a tree in the South American village that is preparing to be slaughter for a meal; she then compares it to a man who has been burnt twice. The author is writing this piece in order to give deeper look at how one could suffer and be at the point of giving up on life. To me, I believe the intended author is those that take life for granted or those who are cruel to animals/humans.

In the story, I noticed what the gentlemen from the big city were saying about how the author was nonchalant about the deer dying in front of them. I’m very squeamish when it comes to animals being mistreated to the point that I have to turn the channel when the abused animal commercial comes on. One could tell by her writing that she didn’t show any emotion for the animal. I keep thinking throughout the whole story that she was going to free the animal but she didn’t. I understand that in other cultures that that is their custom but when that not your everyday life you should have some emotion and she did not.

In the story, she compared the burn victim to the deer. She also compared the burn victim to suicidal people (145). To me, she was trying to insinuate that the deer wanted to kill itself as the burn did too. She compared the deer to the man by describing how it had to be in extreme pain with the gashed on it neck to the bruises on it muscles (142). We all could imagine how much pain the man had to be in being burned that badly. Dillard spoke about how they were in so much pain and couldn’t do anything about. The deer couldn’t get lose from the rope (142) and the man couldn’t get relief from medicine (143). It sad an ending to what one thought was going to a happy story about the jungle.