43 pages • 1 hour read
Holy the Firm
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Literary Devices
Repetition
Dillard’s use of repetition contributes to the meditative quality of Holy the Firm’s prose. Repetition, in a literary work, is simply the name for when an author repeats certain phrases, words, or ideas at various points in the text. Dillard uses all of these forms of repetition, and much of this guide’s analysis of the work focuses on the way that certain words or images recur over large swaths of text. This effect is particularly noticeable in the repetition of the phrase “I read” whenever Dillard introduces ideas from another text.
On a smaller scale, Dillard will often repeat phrases with small variations, such as the opening line, “Every day is a god, each day is a god” (11). This creates the impression that her ideas are being modified or refined in real time: Dillard seems to be still figuring out the best way to articulate her thoughts as the reader experiences the words. Dillard also uses repetition to drive home certain points, as when she repeats “There is no one but us […] there is no one but us. There never has been” (56-57). In all cases, the use of repetition has an incantatory effect similar to ritual prayer, underscoring Dillard’s claims about the spiritual role of the artist.
Personification
Dillard blends the human and the nonhuman together in order to establish many of her points about the nature of God and the universality of suffering. One of the main techniques she uses to accomplish this blending is personification, or the attribution of human qualities to nonhuman or inanimate objects.
Dillard’s use of personification is most pronounced in her descriptions of the daily gods, which take on various human forms, from “an innocent old man scratching his head” to a “boy, pagan and fernfoot” (43, 31). Dillard also gives Puget Sound human qualities, such as the “breast [that] rises from pastures” and the “fingers [that] are firs” (12). Dillard’s use of personification also extends to nonhuman animals—e.g., how she sees the spider’s web as a “little outfit” (13), or how she metaphorically associates the moth with “saffron-yellow” robes and “flame-faced virgin[s]” (17).
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By Annie Dillard
