Pilgrim at Tinker Creek written by Annie Dillard is a very mysterious novel. She goes through life examining many different things one would not typically pay attention to. She wants for us to go through life the way she does, by observing everything, whether it be big or small, and realize what is happening in our surroundings before it is gone. Pilgrim of Tinker Creek is a novel which consists of short passages which relate to one of her seven themes. The dissolution of the present is a big theme throughout her novel. The wind is terrific out of the west; the sun comes and goes. I can see the shadow on the field before me deepen uniformly and spread like a plague. Everything seems so dull I am amazed I can even distinguish objects. And suddenly the light runs across the land like a comber, and up the trees, and goes again in a wink: I think Ive gone blind or died. When it comes again, the light, you hold your breath, and if it stays you forget about it until it goes again. This is a perfect example of the dissolution of the present. Dissolution of the present in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek could be described as
the ending or disappearance of present events, such as the sun setting into night. Annie Dillard uses the coming of night as an example of people not paying attention to what is happening around them. The shadow spreading like a plaque over the field is an analogy one would normally not think of, but it is the perfect example. She is paying attention to every small change that is happening as the sun goes down and all of a sudden the sun has set and it is dark outside, which she compares to being dead or blind. She then talks about how people typically only pay attention to a change for the first few moments it is happening and then forget about it once it is constantly there, like the sun and night. Meaning we only acknowledge the beauty of nature when it is fresh in our minds, but really, this beauty should not be taken for granted and we should be engaged in the beauty around us. It is not just in this passage but all throughout the novel that Annie Dillard is trying to emphasize every action in nature has beauty in it, there is just the choice of whether or not we want to look at it from a fresh view point.