Annie Dillard, “The Wreck of Time”

1. In “The Wreck of Time,” Annie Dillard asks a series of important questions worth considering, none of which would be appropriate for a quiz or text, but all of which might be important for how one views life.  These are questions such as:
-    How can an individual count? (52)
-    What do you think of Stalin’s comment that, “a single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic”? (52)
-    Dillard quotes this passage from the Koran: “Not so much as the weight of an ant in earth or heaven escapes from the Lord,” and then refers to a   similar passage in the Christian Scriptures about a sparrow falling from the sky.  She does not see the point. Do you? (53)
-    What do you think of this comment: “Anyone’s family and friends compose a group invisible, at whose loss the world will not blink.” (54)
-    Do you ever have the sense that “you are an atom lost in the universe”? (54)
2. Why, according to Dillard, is it important that we see the world as new?

3. In a similar spirit, she asks: “Take the bomb threat away and what are we?”  Why is the threat posed by the atomic bomb valuable to us?

4. So too, she reflects on why people keep up with the news.  What is her suggestion?

5. What did the English journalist, observing the Sisters of Charity at work in Calcutta, say about human life?  What do you suppose is the relevance of this statement to the whole article?