In most of this book, what does Dillard primarily see about nature and how does it affect her?

Dillard discovers far more violence and horror in the natural world than she knew existed. This discovery, at first, disillusions her as to the goodness of creation and the creator. Although she acknowledges that she may be interpreting the dog eat dog, or survival of the fittest incorrectly, she is still deeply disturbed by the fact that the life of one creature is often sustained by the death of another. The only way Dillard can reconcile a kind, loving creator with the carnage she observes in the natural world is by reinterpreting the meaning of death, which she does in the chapter fourteen, by deciding that one merely joins the earth at death, which is painless.