Human Potential In Annie Dillard's 'Living Like Weasels'

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard is about the beauty in life and when work becomes art. She talks about Dave Rahm, a fearless pilot and how he maneuvers his plane and the beauty in the moves he executes. Dillard first saw the pilot in an air show and she was enchanted by how the plane moved in the air, almost like music, and how that impacted her and the audience. She later flew with the same pilot, Dave Rahm, and experiences being inside the cockpit of the plane. Dillard uses a lot of details and metaphors that help the readers feel like they are experiencing what is happening themselves. The story she tells of Dave Rahm and his stunts makes the readers think about the beauty and passion in life and the when work becomes art to be seen and

I would like to live in a civilization where the human’s only option is to reach beyond what is to be expected, living a life that is easiest for them. If we were all to live like the weasel does, where their mind set is to be wild it will benefit us in the long run. In “Living Like Weasels,” Annie Dillard interprets that being wild is to be free: to go after your calling, focused on the need to succeed. She also suggests that mindlessness, is not allowing anything to get in the way of your one true goal, where chasing after your dream is your only option, the only means to your own

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”.

Unlike Dillard’s use of long sentences to create large amounts of description, Woolf uses short sentences to express her emotion. Beautiful adjectives and verbs, such as fluttering, flood Woolf’s writing, compared to Dillard’s gruesome verbs, such as sputtering, and jerked. Adjectives such as insignificant set up a depressing, emotional, and pensive tone. Using shorter sentences, such as, “The struggle was over,” (Woolf, “The Death of the Moth,”) and, “What he could do he did,” (Woolf, “The Death of the Moth.”) allows the reader to think and reflect about it. In Dillard’s writing, the reader often can imagine what they are reading from her blunt descriptions. In Woolf’s piece, readers reflect more on the meaning and the impact of the piece through the use of short sentences.

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 An American Childhood by Annie Dillard, Dillard reminisces on her many adventures throughout her childhood living in Pittsburgh. Her stories explain her school, her home life, her family, and growing up. Dillard also talks about changes in her life, and how they affect her, and how she felt about others around her. One’s childhood is a crucial part of life, because it’s a time of learning more than any other time of life. Childhood is a time of curiosity and realization. What you learn in your childhood has a big impact on how you make decisions and act as an adult.

Dillard chose to use diction, or word choice, to accent the two different aspects of the story. One aspect of the author's word choice was to portray her young, seven year old personality. She chose to use a simple words

In "Living like Weasels", author Annie Dillard uses rhetorical devices to convey that life would be better lived solely in a physical capacity, governed by "necessity", executed by instinct. Through Dillard's use of descriptive imagery, indulging her audience, radical comparisons of nature and civilization and anecdotal evidence, this concept is ultimately conveyed.

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 Annie Dillard’s short story “Living Like Weasels,” the reader follows her narration of her first encounter with a weasel. The setting takes place at Hollins Pond, a patch of woods residing near a housing development in Virginia, where she sits on a log and observes the scenery. Some time passes and she eventually watches a weasel scurry into her line of sight; their eyes lock, and her entire perspective on life is altered. After the fact, she describes the confrontation through her analysis between a weasel living in the wild versus people living in civilization. She brings several good points into light that cause herself to question her entire approach on the way she should live. I for one find Dillard's train-of-thought very relatable in analysis of my own life.

In the short story “Living Like Weasels” authored by Annie Dillard, the role of a small, furry, brown-colored rodent’s life develops an extreme significance as the story progresses. According to Dillard, the life that a weasel lives is care free and passionate. Weasels are very tenacious creatures and what they have their eye set on something they want, they go and get it. Also, when Dillard says “The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice” in “Living Like Weasels,” the words can be deeply felt by the reader; we are able to not only feel Dillard’s passion for this underlying opinion of hers, but readers can also develop their own view on what she is saying and find evidence to prove their thoughts (121). The way that everyday

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).

In this quote, Dillard is supposing that humans often become engrossed in the selfish desire to obtain more; whether it be wealth, power, or how others perceive them. Personally, it is easy to see correlation between the mindset I carry and Dillard’s perspective of her encounter with the weasel. Life can be unquestionably overwhelming at times, as a result of this I often picture myself in the life of someone completely incompatible to mine. From my standpoint, their life may be perceived as stress-free and full of freedom, but I am unaware of the challenges that they may as well endure throughout their existence. When Dillard made eye contact with the weasel she experienced 60 seconds of blissful emptiness. Taking time to reflect on your values compared to how others attain theirs is demonstrated crucially in this piece. Dillard states, “I would like to learn, or remember, how to live. I come to Hollins Pond not so much to learn how to live as, frankly, to forget about it” (8). According to the way I view the world, the point Dillard is attempting to get across to the reader is that freedom can be attained by anyone no matter the circumstance, you can be who you want to be with no limitation. I always try to get the most out of

In this sentence, Annie Dillard initially builds up suspense, "[waiting] motionless" for the weasel's return. She further engages her audience through alliteration in three consecutive words, writing "motionless, my mind...", which introduces an unusually calming sensation. I find this alliteration particularly interesting, as Dillard balances the suspense at the beginning of the sentence with a gentle phrase, allowing the reader to pause and reflect upon her current situation. Using juxtaposition, Dillard develops her internal dilemma following the disappearance of the weasel, reintroducing a sense of conflict. While Dillard is at least partially viewing her situation objectively, she is simultaneously pleading that the weasel will return.

The third section focuses on the actual meeting of the weasel. Dillard illustrates her encounter with the weasel in a both impassioned and peaceful tone. Again, with mostly lyrical writing, Dillard gives every detail of her encounter but never makes a negative point, only fascination and calm.