Annie Dillard Kpa

682 Words3 Pages
KPA of Teaching a Stone to Talk This key passage is from the essay “God in the Doorway” in Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard. This passage occurs towards the end of the essay and describes the authors reaction to the arrival of Santa Claus and her feelings about Santa Claus, Miss White, and God during her time following this meeting. Dillard uses this meeting and the following experiences as a revelation of God to the author. As the passage begins, Annie Dillard uses repetition when describing the reason why one might be afraid of Santa Claus. Using the words “bad”, “good”, and “you” frequently helps to dumb down such an intimidating essay to help the level of the obvious content meet the level of the writing. By writing this essay from the eyes of a child, Dillard is able to approach this difficult subject using simple language without seeming like she is questioning the intelligence of the reader. As the passage continues and we are finally told that “Santa Claus stood in the doorway,” Dillard repeats this statement as to paint an image of the scenario for the reader and to reiterate the importance of this moment in the authors life. As the story continues, the author is reflecting back on the night when Santa Claus came and how she now knows it was just Miss White. She refers to this memory of Santa Claus as one that played a part in the “making of Santa Claus, God, and Miss White an awesome, vulnerable, trinity.” This reference of the trinity immediately causes the reader to relate this memory of Christmas to a purely religious experience. When Dillard ends that paragraph with the line, “This is really a story about Miss White,” this causes confusion for the reader as the story is called “God in the Doorway,” and not “Miss White in the Doorway.” Essentially, by saying that this story is really about Miss White, Dillard is ultimately calling Miss
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