Avian Style: Prominent Writing Techniques in Audubon and Dillard Nikhil Mallela 11th Grade

Would you rather fight a hundred duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck? John James Audubon, celebrated ornithologist, would prefer to fight a horse-sized duck due to his immense fear of large swarms of animals, such as the mass of birds he encountered and was powerless to effect. Meanwhile, Annie Dillard would prefer to fight a hundred duck-sized horses, due to her lack of fear of a large mass of birds; she might even make peace with the horses as she did with the birds. In this situation, Audubon’s fear arises from a lack of control, while Dillard’s lack of fear arises from her self-agency, and both writers convey this feeling through the strategic use of micro modes, charged diction, and similes.

In using the macro mode of description, Audubon uses the micro mode of compare/contrast to show awe with a lack of understanding of what is before him, while Dillard refers to the birds on their terms, showing a lack of fear. Audubon uses many metaphors throughout his piece, such as that of the “gigantic serpent” (Audubon). As he is so filled with fear, Audubon cannot bring himself to describe the birds as they are, but he can only refer to them through metaphors of other scary beasts he is more familiar with. Audubon’s lack of...