Chapter+4+Pg.+55-72

Chapter Summary: In the first part of this chapter, Annie visibly points out her thrill in the experience of observing praying mantis egg cases. At times she would often take some home from the woods when they were still hanging on their twigs. Thirty egg cases grew i n the field on Tinker Mountain and thirty grew alongside the weeds of Carvin’s Creek. Between one hundred twenty-five and three hundred fifty eggs were enclosed in each case. Her fascination intensified when she discovered a mantis laying her eggs. She was walking across a hill near Tinker Creek when she caught a glimpse of a white spot. When she came closer to check what it was, she noticed a female mantis was hanging from a stem with a bulk of white bubbles sittin on her abdomen. The male mantis wasn’t at the scene so he had most likely been eaten by the female already. For over an hour Annie had been watching the egg-laying process. From that day on every week from winter to spring, Annie checked on the eggs. She came to the location where she first saw the event and kept an eye out for it on a regular daily basis, anticipated to watch the hatch. Not only did Annie love to look for egg cases and collect them but she also assembled moth cocoon.
 * Chapter 4 'The Fixed'**

When she was around ten or eleven years old, Annie remembered the time her friend Judy brought a moth cocoon in class. Their teacher would leave in sitting on her desk all morning long and then bring it outside during recess. Finally, one day the moth came out of her cocoon and someone –probably the teacher- had let her out of the jar she was kept in. The problem was she couldn’t fly. The moth had a bad wing. During recess Annie remembered watching the moth crawl down the driveway.

In the second part of chapter four, Dillard discusses her disgust with insects. She brings us back to the allusion of sitting in a fifth grade class room. These memories she has, which are mentioned abouve, leads her to further explore what she veiws as horrors of the insect world. Towards the end, she decides that both beauty and horror meet in mysterious was that we cannot see deeply enough to understand. In the end of the chapter Dillard gives us points on how she views the world as 'fixed.' Dillard views our the world as 'fixed,' and fixed horrifies her because to her it means mindlessness. I think the best point she makes in this chapter is the quote on page 69, I believe that this quote alone could sum up the chapter. "It is motion without direction, force without power, the aimless preocession of catterpillers round the rim of the case, and I hate it because at any moment I myself might step to that charmed and glistening thread." (Dillard, pg 69.)

--"Fish gotta swim and bird gotta fly; insects, it seems gotta do one horrible thing after another. I never ask why a vulture or a shark, but I ask why of almsot every insect i see." (Dillard pg.64) --"..., I heard it shooting the sandstone rriggles with a chilled rush and splash." (Dillar pg.69) --"It has a dead, straw, dead weed color, and a curious brittle texture, hard as varnish, but pitted minutely, like frozen foam." (Dillard pg.55) --"I watched the the newly hatched mantises emerge ans shed their skins; they were spidery and translucent, all over joints." (Dillard pg.56) --"Once, when Tinker Creek had frozen inches thisck at a wide part near the bridge, I found a pileated woodpecker in the sky by its giant shadow flapping blue on the white ice below." (Dillard pg.70)
 * Allusions:**

--Uncannily-**beyond the ordinary or normal behavior. --**Thralldom**-the state of being a thrall; bondage; slavery; servitude. --**Picturesque-**visually charming or quaint, as if resembling or suitable for a painting. --**Ambling-**to go at a slow pace with the legs moving in lateral pairs and usually having a four-beat rhythm. --**Abysmal-**extremely or hopelessly bad or severe. --**Hillocks-**a small hill. --**Arabesque-**any ornament or ornamental object, as a rug or mosaic, in which flowers, foliage, fruits, vases, animals, and figures are represented in a fancifully combined pattern. --**Excoriate-**express strong disapproval of. --**Pellucid** -a.llowing the maximum passage of light, clear; translucent. --**Obscurely-**not clear to the understanding; uncertain: obscure motivations. --**Chitin-**A tough, protective, semitransparent substance, primarily a nitrogen-containing polysaccharide, forming the principal component of arthropod exoskeletons and the cell walls of certain fungi. --**Wraith-**an apparition of a living person supposed to portend his or her death, a visible spirit. --**Ubiquitous-**existing or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; omnipresent: ubiquitous fog; ubiquitous little ants. --**I****nfinitesimal-**immeasurably small; less than an assignable quantity: to an infinitesimal degree. --**Entomologist-**the branch of zoology dealing with insects. --**Hasten-**to move or act with haste; proceed with acceleration; hurry: to hasten to a place. --**Oracle-**an utterance, often ambiguous or obscure, given by a priest or priestess at a shrine as the response of a god to an inquiry. --**Profligate-**utterly and shamelessly immoral or scattered; thoroughly dissolute. --**Grotesque-**odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre. --**Imbecility-** Psychology. the state of being an imbecile,an instance or point of weakness;incapability. --**Parody**-to imitate poorly or feebly; travesty. --**Lambent**-dealing lightly and gracefully with a subject; brilliantly playful: softly bright or radiant. --**Imbecility-**an instance or point of weakness; feebleness; incapability. --**Apparatus-**any complex instrument or mechanism for a particular purpose.
 * Vocabulary:

J. Henri Fabre-**(December 22, 1823 - October 11, 1915) J. Henri Fabre was an entomologist and an author.** born in the UK and spoke his mind without worrying about the consequences.
 * People:**
 * Arthur Koestler-**(September 5, 1905 - March 3, 1983) Aruthur Koestler was an novelist, journalist, and critic


 * Sources:**

[|__http://dictionary.reference.com/__]

[|__http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/jhf/cater.html__]