Virginia's Struggle In The Death Of The Moth

Annie Dillard, the author of "Death of a Moth" and Virginia Woolf, the author of "The Death of the Moth" have different perspectives on the subject of life and death.

In the short story “The Moths” by Helena Maria Viramontes, the author uses symbolism and characterization to paint the scene of a girl in a literary fiction that has lost her way and ends up finding herself within her Grandmother through the cycles of life. Through the eyes of an unnamed girl we relive a past that has both a traumatic ending and a new leash on life; however, we do not get there without first being shown the way, enter “The Moths”.

Watching the hopeless death of the vulnerable moth leaves Woolf contemplating her own life, as she compares the moth to herself, and the human race. The moth, caught in a windowsill, is compared to the outside world by Woolf; while the moth flutters and exhibits life,

Annie Dillard’s piece “The Death of the Moth”, is about Dillard being reminded of the death of a moth she observes and how it relates to herself, this piece is a great depiction of the impact of life and death. Dillard describes her surroundings living in a rural area and within her bathroom is a spider which Dillard reminds of a moth that she killed in her past when she sees the web that the spider has spun and how it has caught many bugs including two moths. She is intrigued by the dead moth’s bodies and givings a vivid description of the bodies While describing the moth’s dead torn body she relates it to a personal experience from her past where she watched a moth die with candle two years ago. Dillard described the burning moth in vivid

The symbolized inferior butterfly has been killed by a more superior human. Killing a butterfly doesn’t usually come to people as a huge occurrence but this really is a small event turned major because it alters the future timeline. The theme of this story is a metaphor on society because in the post-world war era this was an important message, one action from a high ranking official, or even a small person doing a dangerous deed could most definitely cause panic and have far greater impact on society, just as the two World Wars did.

Dillard also accomplishes to draw a strong parallel between herself and the symbol of this essay. As Dillard reads by candlelight, a “golden female Moth, a biggish one” flies into her candle, bringing itself to its own demise. Dillard closely analyzes this majestic Moth that has suddenly flapped itself to the center of her world. In paragraph five, after she has witnessed the Moth burn into bits and pieces, Dillard says “that candle had two wicks, two winding flames of identical light, side by side”. Dillard then begins to draw similarities between herself and the ill-fated moth. The moth was “golden” and “biggish” before she had flew into the fire, much like the writer that Dillard was like before she became a victim of writer's block. Dillard also draws a connection to religious figures in paragraph six, when she says “She burned... like a hollow saint, like a flame-faced virgin gone to God.” A parallel that can be

Analyzing her newfound appreciation sanctions Woolf to remind herself that life is precious. Reminding herself of life 's grandeur enables Woolf to then transfer the tone into her writing. Conveying the value of life, changes Woolf’s perspective. She values life more, but as she has learned earlier from the moth, sadness is inherent; sadness is brought by tragedy, like dying. Conclusively, Woolf’s use of pathos in her writing enabled her to present a clear tone, which contributed to the theme that death is inevitable.

The Moths by Helena Maria Viramontes is a short story about a relationship between a teenage girl and her abuelita. Although, the title seems unfitting for a story about a loving relationship between family members the significance of the moths, in this story, has a much deeper meaning than one would think. Like many other aspects of the piece, the insects have a symbolic meaning in order to convey the author’s feelings during the time of her grandmother’s death. Throughout the story we see the use of multiple descriptions, settings, as well as dialogue in order to pass a message to the audience. The Moths is not only a story about death and brokenness, but a story about cures and peace. Upon further examination of this narrative, the story presents symbolic attributes about the main characters personalities, descriptions, and religious imagery that tell the story about a cure for brokenness, a rebirth of hope, and coming of age.

A Summer of Silk Moths the Author Manganet Willey there are 243 pages in this book. This book was Fiction and mystery. Nora she got sexually abused by her father and has had a really bad childhood growing up and it was rough for her. Pete was adopted and had a very rough childhood growing up as well. Paul was a small, town star but soon later he died in a car accident.

In conclusion, In the Time of the Butterflies, is a very touching and breathtaking book that embedded the historical event into a chronological story that showed the symbolic and thematic topics that occurred in the time periods the book was set in which was from 1930’s-1990’s where Dede was telling the

“The Moths” by Helena Maria Viramontes is a fictional short story about the narrator’s personal hardship of watching her grandmother die slowly because of natural causes. Although, the name of this story is “The Moths” don’t let this fool you. In this story, references to moths are only used twice. Using the moths, the author is able to convey a theme, help create the tone, and resolve the central conflict. I believe that the moths are actually being used in this story to symbolize some sort of healing and relief. In the following paragraphs, I would like to defend my claim and also show you examples of how Mrs. Viramontes utilizes the moths for many different elements in this story.

In the short story, The Moths Helena Maria Viramontes uses characterization and symbols to shine light on gender roles and maturity especially for women in the Hispanic culture. This short story was published in 1985 and during this time gender roles were changing. The number of women obtaining a higher education increased, it became more common for women to resist the stay at home and watch the children lifestyle. Hispanics in the US during this time felt like they were losing self-identity due to harsh laws passed by the United States. Knowing this information while I read this story was meaningful because it gave me a better understanding on what the narrator and her family were going through.

“The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf explains the life of a moth that is centered around a role that represents life. The theme is the mystery of death and the correspondence of the life of the moth with the true nature of life. Death is a difficult subject for anyone to speak of but it part of life. The Death Process, the struggling and fighting against death.

The lonesome creatures devoured all in their path, but nothing was ever enough for them as the darkness always left them craving more. Soon

In her essay “The Death of the Moth”, Virginia Woolf depicts the struggle of life confronting death through the death of a moth. Woolf sees a moth flying in “a pleasant morning, mid-September, mild, benignant” (385). She uses this soft autumnal description of her morning to emphasize the beauty of life and the happiness one feels while being alive; however, she uses the moth to represent life itself and show its own struggles: “ [the moth] tried to fly across...the window-pane”, but “he failed” (386). She uses the moth’s "failure and awkwardness" (386) to announce death’s arrival and the moth’s constant effort to keep flying to show a desperation to hang on to life. Why moth is so attached to life?. “After perhaps a seventh attempt [the moth] slipped from the wooden ledge and fell, fluttering his wings, onto his back on the window sill” (385). No matter how bad the consequences of the moth’s attempts to fly, he was not going to surrender and after recognizing that “there was something marvelous as well as pathetic about” the moth due to his constants attempts to live, Woolf “stretched out a pencil, meaning to help him to right himself”, but when she notice “the approach of death… [she] laid the pencil down again” (385). Woolf’s use of the pencil instead of her own fingers shows how fragile the life of the moth was and how careful she was trying to be to help the “insignificant creature” (385). However, her shift from interest on the moth life to its death might