Question

Identify: Attempting to transcend her condition, the author tries to focus on nature as she lies limp in the dirt (lines 46-78). What does she realize about the earth and the sky as she lies there?

Answer 1

Answer:

While lying on the dirt the author realized that the lovely blue sky is actually not blue and she could feel the hard and emphatic presence of the earth coming upon her.

Explanation:

In her essay titled "Against Nature", Joyce Carol Oates writes about why she thinks that nature should not be a topic of writing. She begins with reciting her experience when she had a tachycardia attack while she was jogging. She recalled that she was lying on the ground, she lies limp in the dirt and tried to focus on nature to remain calm at that time.

As she was lying down on the ground she could feel the earth's presence hard and emphatic upon herself. She could feel that the earth was shifting forward. And she noticed that the sky, the lovely blue sky, which was rolling away forever in infinity, was not blue.