A Summary Of The Poed By Dillard

Connell deploys the literary device of metaphors perpetually throughout his thriller to delineate a suspenseful mood. Subsequent to the complication of the plot, Connell writes, “The lights of the yacht became faint and ever vanishing fireflies” (14). Here, Connell portrays the current setting, of the yacht moving farther away from Rainsford in the middle of the ocean, through analogizing the lights of the yacht he occupied previously to fireflies. In turn, this leaves the reader to feel a sense of enticement and allows them to question where the fate of Rainsford now lies, since he presently has no form of transportation to achieve tranquility, thus abating Rainsford’s chances for survival. Furthermore, the author manifests a theme of trepidation in this moment of the short story due to vividly describing the scene as greatly dark and sullen, which therefore unveils mere fear in Rainsford since he will soon have to formulate an elaborate plan to find safety. Moreover, one observes the concept of menace in this portion of the text, for the author writes current destiny of Rainsford as rather cryptic which presents danger for Rainsford and his life. Whilst Rainsford partakes in General Zaroff’s lethal game, narrator remarks, “The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouse” (24). Taking into consideration that mice are cat’s prey, Connell, through comparing General Zaroff to a cat and Rainsford to a mouse, limns how General Zaroff has more dominant in the game thus far, ergo diminishing Rainsford’s possibilities for

Annie Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” details Dillard’s encounter with a weasel in the wild, and her attempts to come to terms with her feelings about said meeting. Dillard not only goes into great detail about the experience itself, but she also provides a very good background on weasels, as well as others’ experiences with the animal. Through her use of background analysis on weasels, as well as with her own experience, Dillard uses the three rhetorical appeals to argue why we humans could and should “live like weasels”.

Secondly, Dillard’s work “living like weasels” effectively projects her perspective through the use of her radical comparisons. Throughout the essay, Dillard’s use of comparisons often helped familiarize her audience in connecting complex and abstract concepts together into concrete context. This is first seen as she states “His journal is tracks in clay, a spray of feathers, mouse blood and bone: uncollected, unconnected, loose-leaf, and blown.” Through this, Dillard connects a concept most would be familiar with: writing journals, to describe what goes on in a weasel’s mindset. In addition, she illustrates that not only do weasels act out of survival, but simply that their “journal” is a transcript of their physical actions. Dissimilar to humans, weasels do not render their thoughts nor “write in journals”, but rather react out of instinct. It is often seen through the content of the piece that she also enjoys to contrast and compare through the occurrences of juxtaposition. This can be seen in the phrases such as, “Our look was as if two lovers, or deadly enemies, met unexpectedly on an overgrown path when each had been thinking of something else: a clearing blow to the gut”. Through these lines, the ideas of man vs nature are continuously

In her essay “Living Like Weasels”, Annie Dillard explores the idea of following a single calling in life, and attaching one’s self it this calling as the weasel on Ernest Thompson Seton’s eagle had. Dillard presents her argument using the analogy of a weasel and how the; “weasel lives as he’s meant to, yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity” (Dillard). In constructing her argument, however, she often contradicts herself undermining the effectiveness of her argument and leaving the reader confused. Dillard primarily uses ethos and pathos to support her argument and concerning both, the reader discovers; inconsistencies in her character, and conflicts between her perceptions of the weasel’s emotions and its actions. Concerning her ethos, Dillard presents herself as a part of suburbia and then is suddenly, inexplicably overcome by the desire to live wild. Dillard also uses very detailed language throughout the essay in describing her surroundings and thoughts, however; this further undermines her argument and ethos as she is trying to convince the reader that she could simply become as simple and single minded as the weasel she has focused her argument around. With her use of pathos, Dillard begins her essay with descriptions of the weasel’s brutality, yet; she concludes by stating the weasel lives as is necessary. By simplifying her experience and presenting a reasonable explanation for why she wanted to

In “Living Like Weasels,” Annie Dillard recalls an encounter with a weasel and connects the weasel’s tenacity to the human pursuit of one’s calling. In a forest, Dillard describes the encounter with the weasel when they lock eyes; she then explains what is inside of the weasel’s brain, his habits and traits. (MS7) She explains that a weasel’s living is one desire: instinct, a weasel’s tenacity to lock onto its prey and to not let go. Dillard then compares the weasel’s tenacity with the human calling; humans urge to understand their calling and refuse to quit until they have achieved their goal. Additionally, Dillard offers an exhortation to live in obedience to that calling. (MS6) As well as obedience, instinct requires the human capacity for reason.

Readers more fully understand the force of Zeena’s controlling personality by observing the effect her domineering tendencies have on both her husband, as well as his new love interest, Mattie. When Zeena takes in homeless Mattie to serve as an unpaid housemaid, Zeena’s harsh, tyrannical proclivities increase. Instead of Zeena’s efforts quelling the growing infatuation between Ethan and Mattie, Zeena’s heightening nastiness only make the lovely, obedient and good-natured Mattie more appealing to Ethan. The lovers now share a common bond and a common enemy, feeling trapped with a monster in their midst. During the first few months of Mattie’s stay, Ethan desires “to see Mattie, defy Zeena, and trembled with fear of the result…”(pg 52). Even after months of staying in the Frome household, Mattie still feels this effect. “since the previous night, a vague dread hung on the sky-line. It was formed by Zeena’s obstinate silence, of Mattie’s sudden look of warning…” (pg

Annie Dillard’s essay is just an exploration into the way human beings might live. When she sees a weasel, she looks into the life of that weasel. Studying how it lives its life. Then she compares it to humans. Human beings are creatures of caution and fear. We never fully live our lives because we are too caught up with avoiding risks. We think, debate, and calculate each and every move while weasels just simply act. A weasel is a creature of action and instinct. A weasel lives its life the way it was created to, not questioning his motives, simply striking when the time is right. I agree with Dillard’s idea that we "might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive" (Dillard 210).

Dillard’s powerful imagery throughout the essay is crucial for understanding the differences in seeing. For example, she is able to describe something as broad as nature by using a simile such as “nature is like one of those line drawings of a tree that are puzzles for children” (19). Since Dillard writes with such a loose structure, the imagery she creates helps clarify

In one's life, for many, the place means everything. In the novel Blank by Trina St Jean, a young teen looses her memory after an upsetting accident and spends the novel trying to figure out what happened. Jessica's life is set in her family farm and surrounding forest. Setting is crucial to her story because of her love for nature, her accident, and her runaway plan. To begin, Jessica’s family farm is the perfect place for a nature lover like Jessica, it could be that living on the farm made her develop her love, or that is grew over time. Nonetheless, the farm is a crucial setting to the story: “After taking the first photo it starts to come back to me. Not a memory, but a feeling. Like I’ve done this before” (St. Jean 189). Here it is seen

She wrote, “They seemed to unravel as they flew, lengthening in curves, like a loosened skein.” Even in that one quote she had two rhetorical devices spewing onto the page. Rhetorical devices add beauty and the flow of the writing great which makes it sound better than Audubon’s. The personification and simile in this quote and as well in many others are examples of how much attention to detail Dillard does. Another contrast was that Dillard’s piece is about just one moment in one setting.

Her pregnancy dominates her thoughts as she only thinks about herself and she is unable to mourn her loss. Darl knows her secret, and she hates him for knowing. She imagines killing Darl: “I rose and took the knife from the streaming fish still hissing and I killed Darl” (121). This imagining emphasizes how she can only focus on her current situation, instead of thinking about her mother. When she makes it to the drugstore, the clerk, MacGowan, describes Dewey Dell: “One of them black eyed ones that look like she’d as soon put a knife in you as not if you two-timed her” (242). After all the pain the pregnancy caused her, her interactions with manipulative men (such as with the drugstore clerk, her family and with her baby’s father), have made her distrust men and look menacing to strangers. The heartache she feels from her overwhelming stress causes her to primarily stay in the anger stage throughout the book, causing her to turn on others.

Although this section is the easiest to read, it sets up the action and requires the most "reading between the lines" to follow along with the quick and meaningful happenings. Millay begins her poem by describing, in first person, the

Annie Dillard goes on to say “The purity of living in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive”(Dillard 3). Annie believes that there are lessons from nature that can be learned and that humankind can learn from a weasels nature. Although Dillard teaches people about weasels, the movie Interstellar focuses on exploration.

Through the use of juxtaposition, the author attempts to represent the complexity of the human mind. The story takes place at an old mansion in a secluded part of town, surrounded by a “delicious garden” (Perkins 130). The narrator describes the home to have been “long untenanted” (Perkins 129) and have a haunted appearance, which leads to create the image of a shabby-looking establishment. Such juxtaposing qualities of the setting could be said to represent the narrator’s own mind; the garden symbolizing freedom and happiness and the house symbolizing her neglected mental

Amy Tan changes her syntax into a concise almost fragmented manner when describing the scenery in order to paint a clearer picture in your mind. The reader is able to understand exactly what they need to about the shop that Winnie runs. All extraneous detail have been removed in order to make for a concise yet compelling description of the room. This change in syntax makes the reader understand that they are getting just the information that they need about the scenery in order to understand it. Tan uses this syntax to paint a full picture with less than a thousand words.