The Stunt Pilot

When choosing an essay to read, the words, “Bellingham, Washington,” stood out to me. I thought it would be interesting to read about something that took place in an area close to where I live. The Stunt Pilot is a descriptive essay about a fearless stunt pilot named Dave Rahm. The author, Annie Dillard, uses many devices to allow the reader to feel like they are also flying in the airplane.

When reading the selection, it was obvious to me that Dillard was a poet. Her sentences seem to flow, using schemes and tropes such as metaphors, personification, and other rhetorical devices. Dillard often uses similes to depict Rahm’s flying. “The plane looped the loop, seeming to arch its back like a gymnast . . . . “It played with its own line like a cat with yarn” (pg 89).

Imagery is another important device used when portraying the movement of a stunt pilot. When Annie Dillard got the chance to ride with Rham, she was amazed at the atmosphere she had entered. Annie described the nature from above clearly, “Patches of cloud obscured the snow fleetingly…mountainside coming up at the windows from all directions, ice and snow and rock filling the screen up close and screaming by” (pg 92). Dillard’s sentences are long with vivid word choice, often separated with commas and semi-colons to emphasize the intensity of the moment.

Annie Dillard constantly contrasted Dave Rahm with an artist. The movements he made with his airplane, or “paintbrush,” were a masterpiece. I believe Dillard wanted to show that the pilot’s talent was really an art form. The author had expertly illustrated Rahm’s character. Annie portrayed him as a strong man who never showed emotion. His capability to fly an airplane depended strictly on “matter-of-fact” flying; that he never revealed how he felt, or saw the art he created. His purpose was to entertain the crowd and nothing else.

I found it very interesting that the life expectancy of a crop duster pilot is only five years; that pilots will risk their lives everyday just to experience the exhilaration of flying. I couldn’t imagine any hobby of mine to be worth the expense of my life. But according to Mermoz, the early French aviator, “It’s worth the final smashup.”