Living Like Weasels By Annie Dillard

In the short story “The Glass Roses” by Alden Nowlan. Nowlan portrays the idea that adversity is part of our lives, and this adversity shapes us as individuals. But in the face of adversity an individual must either strive to fulfill their individual self-interests and ideas or abandon them to conform to authority. Nowlan suggests this idea through the character, Stephen and his struggle to conform to authority or pursue his ideas which suggests that humans often bring about changes to themselves in order to adapt to the environment they live in.

Nellie Bly was born May 5th, 1864 in a small town called Cochran Mills in Pennsylvania. Nellie’s real name is Elizabeth Cochrane. Nellie was a Journalist; she began her newspaper career at the age of 18. Nellie got her pseudonym from her editor, who refused to openly allow a female to write for his paper.

Unlike animals, humans are able to observe past the mere monochromatic vision of survival. We have an impeccable ability to desire more than just living to breed, and breeding only to someday perish. Thus, we gradually brush this canvas with the colours of ethics, control, and knowledge. Whether the colours fade or become prominent through time, this canvas becomes our perception of normality and we allow it to justify our actions; favorable or harmful. We, as well as the narrator in the short story The Hunt by Josephine Donovan represent this. However, because of the narrator’s difference in perception, self-indulgence, and greed for power, the story introduces a feeling of infuriation to the reader.

In “Living Like Weasels,” author Annie Dillard’s idea is that humans can benefit from living wild as a weasel. I strongly agree because to live wild like a weasel is to live mindless, free and focused. With these living abilities we as humans will be able get closer to our aspirations in life and do whatever means necessary to get there.

The concept of free will is essential in topics related to choice. The way people live their lives is constructed by decisions they make on a daily basis, such as whether or not to attend a college classes or what job to choose in the future. But in “Living Like Weasels”, Annie Dillard realizes that the concept of free will is not pure. Society has a tendency to drive an individual’s choice based on what is the norm. Through her observations of a weasel, Dillard makes a commentary on the relationship between people and free will. In “Living Like Weasels”, Annie Dillard uses the analysis of a weasel to remind society about the often overlooked power of free will embedded in human nature.

“But, I 'm already resigned to this fate / Looking over my life, I recall / If it hadn 't been / for the loneliness / I 'd have no companion at all. ” This stanza from “Loneliness”, by Lora Colon evokes the negative impact a lonely fate has on a person. Words like “resigned” and “loneliness” establish a sense of depression and resignation. During the times of the Great Depression, many people felt similar feelings of melancholy and stoicism. Jobs were hard to come by, and realistic dreams of success were scarce. John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, allows readers to see the life of the Great Depression. The two main characters, George and Lennie, search for jobs, like many other migrant workers. They dream of owning their own land, however, Lennie’s habit of getting in trouble prevents their dream from being reality. After he accidentally causes more trouble at their new job, George is forced to kill him out of mercy. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck shows that even if one meticulously plans out the road to their American Dream, fate will inevitably intervene and lead one to desolation and loneliness.

America’s answer for dealing with crime prevention is locking up adult offenders in correctional facilities with little rehabilitation for reentry into society. American response for crime prevention for juvenile’s offenders is the same strategy used against adult offenders taken juvenile offenders miles away from their environment and placed in adult like prisons.

Secondly, Dillard believes also that the lifestyle of a weasel, if lived and followed by a human, will deliver this person to a successful life. As Dillard references in the story, and also in the introductory paragraph, Weasels live on necessity while people are living on choice. By this, she is implying that weasels live their everyday lives day by day, they do not stress about what is to come next, the focus on what they need to get done at that moment, not what is down the road. Weasels intellectual ability allows them to base their actions off of instinct, rather than off of research, predictions and estimations. Weasels are able to figure out what the best option is for them at any given moment, they do not over-analyze what may be coming their way; weasels just live their lives the way they should believe: carefree. When Dillard describes humans as thriving off of choice, this really begins to make readers think that what she is saying is true. Everyday that a person wakes up, he/she is immediately bombarded with possibility and question. Should I make my bed? Which bottle of shampoo should I use? What shirt should I wear to day? Are some of the question people may ask themselves as they wake up and prepare for the day. We are able to make decision at every point in are life, and some decisions can make or break your career; one bad decision could even take away your family, house

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 "Swarms Of Terror" Lauren Tarshis and "Growing Up On A Farm" by Ryder Staples talks about how framing back then is much different then farming today. The first quote from the article "Swarms Of Terror" proves that they used their crops to make money. That is why farming is much different form today. The first quote from they article uses is "farmers sold crops for the majority of their income" (Tarshis 15). The quote shows that farming is much different from back in history compared to today.

Anne Dillard's essay was a beautiful and entertaining essay to read. She uses a lot of detail and really makes you ponder what she is writing about. I think there are certain values to living like a weasel. Due to it's mindlessness, the weasel is driven by raw instinct and because of this the weasel can easily focus on one goal whether it be to sleep or to focus on the hunt. The weasel doesn't have to focus on unnecessary worries like us humans do and it's life is one of simplicity.

Published in 1997, Marie Howe’s anthology of poems, What the Living Do was written as an elegy to her brother, John, who passed away due to AIDS. Howe’s anthology is written without metaphor to document the loss she felt after her brother’s death. Although What the Living Do is written as an anthology, this collection allows for individual poems to stand alone but also to work together to tell an overarching story. Using the poetic devices of alliteration, enjambment, repetition and couplets, Howe furthers her themes of gender and loss throughout her poems in her anthology.

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.

The movie “White Oleander” follows the story of a teenage girl named Astrid who creates an image of herself from the environment she is placed in. Through the concepts developed by Bandura on Social Learning, this paper will discuss how Astrid minuvores throughout a series of different environments. Like a chameleon Astrid projects herself onto others as a version they would like to have.

In the poem, To a Mouse, by Robert Burns, is one confusing poem. From my understanding, when someone knows what the poem is talking about it makes more sense. When you hear the poem being read aloud, you can start to understand exactly what is going at. In this poem, a mouse’s home was destroyed by a farmer. Let’s just say that, that farmer was pretty upset doing such a thing.