The Power of Dillard's A Field of Silence In her essay, Annie Dillard wrote: "There was only silence. It was the silence of matter caught red-handed and embarrassed There were no moving cells there, and yet there were cells that I could see the shape of the earth as it lay silent" (396)1. The story in which he spoke of the silence of the earth was published in 1982, and today, almost two decades later, A Field of Silence is still able to involve its readers. A Field of Silence is the story of one of Dillard's religious experiences. It may be considered boring and confusing to most people, but I found it quite interesting. I have to admit, though, that I found the story a little boring the first time I read it, but after reading it a couple of times, I was able to understand what Dillard was trying to accomplish. He used a narrative technique to grab the reader's attention and then at the end gave his impression of what he thought about his experience. If Dillard had simply come out and said what she believed was valuable information that everyone needed to know, this essay would not have survived as long in the real world. Most people are not interested in knowing the facts right away; they want to think about what the author is trying to tell them. While some people may complain that they are confusing and that the article is boring (I know I did at first), most people will agree that they would try to understand what the author is saying. For this reason, Dillard does a great job with A Field of Silence. I believe there is an advantage in reading an essay about a religious experience from another historical period for... middle of paper... h them. Most people, myself included, remember sayings much more easily if there is a story behind them that we can fall back on or refer to, and this is exactly what Dillard did in A Field of Silence. Whether people find this article boring or interesting most people would agree with me that Dillard knows how to relate to his readers. He knows how to captivate the audience, drag them through his entire story and leave them hanging wondering what he was actually trying to tell them. No wonder he doesn't find it surprising that nearly two decades later, people can still relate to Dillard's experience. Works Cited:1 Anderson, Chris and Lex Runciman. (1995). A field of silence. In A Forest of Voices: Reading and Writing the Environment (pp.395-399). Calafornia: Mayfield Publishing Co. Below, all quotes will be taken from this source.