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Annie Dillard Living Like Weasels Summary

Decent Essays

An Analysis of Naturalism and the Artist in and "Living Like Weasels” and “Total Eclipse” Annie Dillard

Question 1:

The transformative experience that Dillard experiences occurs when she is traveling through the mountainous regions of washing state en route to see an eclipse. During the eclipse Dillard begins to realize that she cannot measure life through her limited mind. The effect of the eclipse o the colorations of the natural surroundings define a transformative event, which she could never imagine in the limitless possibilities of nature: “I turned back to the sun. It was going. The sun was going, and the world was wrong. The grasses were wrong; they were platinum (Dillard, “Total Eclipse” 8). These experiences define the slow realization that the human ego wants to control our perception of the world, but nature can always …show more content…

In many ways, she sat by her tree in order to empty her mind of the busy thoughts, and the emotional pressures of daily life. However, when she observed the fierceness of the weasel, Dillard began to understand a deeper understanding of life through necessity in the wild and the comfort of human life in Nature. “The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice hating necessity and dying at the ignobly in its talons” (Dillard “Living Like Weasels” 125). In my own life, I am constantly under pressure to be a stay home mother and raise my children, which I feel is not being appreciated by my husband. On the other hand, I am trying to finish my degree, so that I have a certified background to be independently employed outside of the home. I can relate to Dillard’s point of view because of the shortness of life, and the necessity of living it to the fullest. In this context, it is important to understand the fulfillment of life in the present tense versus being regretful about opportunities not

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