Purpose Of Living Like Weasels

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.

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”.

Annie Dillard 's, "Living Like Weasels" has many observational characteristics about the daily life of a weasel. At the exposition of her story, she goes into detail about the appearance, behavior and other such details about a weasel’s life. According to her observations, weasels are wild and obedient to instinct, meaning a weasel will do anything to survive. In the passage Dillard notes, weasels are "ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as fruitwood, soft-furred, alert … He had two black eyes I didn 't see, any more than you see a window" (Dillard). This analysis of the weasel’s appearance emphasizes the fact that they are simple land dwelling creatures. Initially, Dillard only viewed weasels as the inferior animals’ society deems them as. But as she observed their

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

The hummingbird was an example of a person with the idea that living fast was smart. The whale was an example of a person that lived much slower and eventually left to feel more secluded and away. The human with a wall around their heart was an example of a person who lived very emotionally and on edge with the fear of heartbreak. All in all, the details of a person’s life is examined differently whether the person chooses to live the type of life where they look at the details or

Animals by Simon Rich is an outstanding short story which takes a unique perspective on the everyday life in a classroom. The story is written from the point of view of a hamster who spends his tortured life entrapped in a cage. From the first point in this story, it is clear that the purpose of the writing is not to understand the hamster, but rather to analyze the different actions of the people, and to discover that how they act towards the hamsters reflects on their character. It is curious to view the everyday interactions of people through a different set of eyes, that is done by humanizing the narrator’s perspective. Based on the actions of the many people and the treatment of the class pet, the author suggests that human nature is very much a product of the financial circumstances a person is subjected to.

In “Living Like Weasels” Annie Dillard describes her experience with a weasel reflecting about the instinct the weasel lives by compared to the monotonous existence people live today. Dillard then narrates the setting, just a few minutes outside of civilization, where she explains the weasel’s life describing its primal and thoughtlessness lifestyle. The weasel Dillard sees in the wild is primitive, showing its instinct and calling in life contrasting the reason and rationality people live by today. In the passage, Dillard concludes by contrasting the wildness and instinct of the weasel to the logic of society. By doing so, she accentuates the ancient instinct of living and elaborates on how learning from the weasel’s life might make one possess the same desire to live.

    One can unknowingly suffer for the sake of society’s convenience. Both authors, Ray Bradbury and Ursula Le Guin, demonstrate the suffering that the protagonist endures in order to serve their society. A variety of rhetorical strategies and modes contribute to the overall role of the protagonists. Ray Bradbury uses personification and the rhetorical mode of pathos to convey the oblivious suffering that the protagonist, the “smart house”, undergoes. Ursula Le Guin utilizes diction and the rhetorical mode of pathos to demonstrate the society’s dependency on the life of a young, hopeless boy. Through the authors’ use of diction, personification, and the rhetorical mode of pathos, readers can view both short stories in

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.

“Beneath My House” by Louise Erdrich, is a literary essay with an expressive approach. Erdrich narrates the day she rescues a kitten from beneath her house, despite the fact that she does not even like cats. Her maternal instincts take over when she hears the kitten cry, which causes her to do whatever it takes to rescue the kitten. Then, the author analyzes the event and she expresses her emotional response. Through the use of description and narration, Erdrich allows for the audience to imagine the rescue of the kitten “beneath her house.” The overall theme is the act of being born.

The poem entitled “Curiosity” written by Alastair Reid is a symbolic poem that uses cats as a metaphor for humans. It relates felines to people in the sense of curiosity, and what could be considered actually living life to the fullest. Essentially, this work contradicts the popular phrase, “curiosity killed the cat” by placing it within a broader context. Instead of discouraging curiosity, Reid explains why people should embrace it.

Most people think of small animals, such as sheep, as meek and submissive due to their frequent portrayal as innocent characters in children’s stories and folklore; in these same stories, antagonistic characters tend to be fiercer animals such as lions or wolves. However, the children’s movie Zootopia, in which all characters are mammals, shows that this is not always the case. The characters in this film break the stereotypes against them by being different or the opposite of what the audience expects based on their species or occupation within the film. For instance, Judy Hopps solves the case on the missing mammals and why they went savage despite being a “dumb bunny”, and Nick Wilde turns from a sly con artist to the first fox cop. This

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

Although seemingly unimportant to the storyline, the presence of the foxes and horses play a major role in the story, as they symbolize the sides of the conflict between conformity and self image. The foxes represent conformity; they all live in the same routine, are controlled by others in their environment, and are both literally and metaphorically locked in a cage. The narrator’s environment is much like the foxes, controlling. Her parent’s subtle hints, whether it be her mother’s comments or her father’s tasks, are slowly but surely enclosing on her like a cage, and will soon trap her.

Once upon a time there lived a lanky little rat named Rudy. Rudy’s fur was very dull and felt like needles. She lived in a tiny village where all the animals knew each other. Every afternoon she would meet with her friends at the riverbank to tell stories of their morning. One day Rudy scurried to the riverbank excited to share with her friends a cheesecake she had baked just for them, but when she arrived at the meeting spot, no one was there. Worried and confused, Rudy hurried in to town to look for her friends there. Just as she reached the main road, her body froze as she watched the most beautiful creature strolling through town. Rudy looked around and noticed she was not the only animal in the village mesmerized by this beautiful