Jest and Earnest Summary [BBS/BBA Second Year English Note]
“Jest and Earnest” written by Annie Dillard is a narrative
essay. In the essay, the writer talks about the natural world, its wonders, and
the creator of the world.
She begins the essay by describing her summer visit along the
edge of the island to see what she could see in the water. Since she was
interested in frogs, she wished to scare frogs and have fun. Dillard was amazed
to see the frogs hopping in the water and their invisible position.
The frogs' invisible state and the way they splashed water
amused the writer. As she moved further along the edge of the grassy island,
she found other frogs which were jumping in and out of the water. At the end of
the island, she noticed a small green frog. The frog was half dipped into the
water. The frog didn't change its position even when the writer went closer to
it. She started observing the fish minutely just from four feet away. It was a
tiny frog with wide and dull eyes.
In the meantime, she noticed a sudden change in the frog's
body. The frog slowly crumpled and began to sag. The frog's skin emptied,
shrank, and dropped like a deflating football (airless ball). As she observed
the event carefully, she noticed an enormous giant brown bug sucking the frog’s
internal organs.
The writer, then, talked about natural predators. She talked
about carnivorous animals which eat their prey alive. These carnivorous animals
attack other animals from the back, immobilize them and eat whole. Frogs, on
the other, catch their prey with their sticky tongue and eat them whole. Ants
don't catch their prey but eat newly hatched fatherless birds in the nest tiny
byte by byte.
These animals' activities make her think about God and his
creation. She brings the reference to Koral, the holy book of Muslims, which
describes that God had created earth and heaven in jest. However, even Allah is
confused about whether God has created animals in jest or earnest.
Dilliard mentions the name of Pascal and Einstein. According
to Pascal, the essence of God is found everywhere but the matter is that he is
hidden and cannot be seen with eyes. Similarly, Einstein too has talked about
God's existence. He believes that God is subtle i. e. difficult to perceive but
not malicious (harmful)
Dillard thinks that God has created every creature with some
purpose. She believes that God is found everywhere. She opines that God has not
left the universe; he has just taken on a different form. So while cruelty may exist within nature,
there is God still behind it. He still
plays a role in the functionality of the universe. It’s just not manifested
clearly to humans.
The writer’s concern is to describe the belief that God is
omniscient. She also wants to show that even in times of doubt and suffering,
God is always there.