ipl-logo

Annie Dillard Living Like Weasels Analysis

637 Words3 Pages
This evaluation of style will be examining the essay “Living Like Weasels” by Annie Dillard. Dillard composed her essay as part of a larger collection of short nonfiction narrative essays during the year 1982 when amendments to the original 1972 Wildlife Protection Act of the United States of America took place, in which the original intent being to increase awareness of the compelling need to restore the catastrophic ecological imbalances introduced by the disfigurement inflicted on nature by mankind. Dillard writes with a picturesque style, which aids in Dillard’s intensely detail oriented behavior, as well as her deep concern with the applicability of animal traits to human behaviors.
One of the most distinguishing aspects of Dillard’s picturesque
Show More
Related
267 Words | 2 Pages

Biologist, Rachel Carson, in her book Silent Springs discusses a growing issue of uneducated individuals harming and even killing various animals. Carson’s purpose is to convey the idea that individuals need to educate themselves before making rash decisions that can affect countless other species. She employs oblivious diction in order to appeal similar feelings and opinions in her environmentalist readers. Rachel Carson initiates her excerpt of Silent Springs by describing in exquisite detail an incident occurring in Southern Indiana which negatively impaired multiple innocent species. She appeals to her caring audience by concluding that the rash crimes committed by the farmers were intended to “eradicate” the creature, purely because the

Read More
258 Words | 2 Pages

This is a summary of “A Christmas Story” by Annie Dillard. Every Christmas there was a massive dinner held in a seemingly never-ending dining hall. It was lavish and spacious with a table that was as long as a river and was decorated with many different table cloths and decorations. The ceiling of the hall was covered in chandeliers and the floor was filled with different groupings of people: the sick and injured, the children, to those who wanted to dance or participate in games or various others who gathered in separate sections throughout the hall.

Read More
1259 Words | 6 Pages

David Baron’s “The Beast in the Garden” primarily follows the life of Michael Sanders, a biologist working mainly in Boulder, Colorado. Michael’s mission throughout the story is the study and prediction of the dangers of urban cougars. Living in a city of staunch environmentalists, Michael’s attempts to sway public opinion is a daunting task. As it would seem, the majority of Boulder environmentalists value cougar’s lives over human lives. Michael Sanders is a middle aged biologist, originally from a small town in Tennessee.

Read More
1571 Words | 7 Pages

Tafim Alam Professor Joines Engl 1310 04/11/2023 Intricacy analysis “Intricacy” by Annie Dillard is an excerpt from the larger piece of writing Pilgrims at Tinker Creek. In “Intricacy” Dillard highlights many issues, facts, and characteristics of this world. Dillard highlights the necessity to preserve nature, no matter how big or small. She wants us to focus on the things that we can't see with the naked eye, the things we are unaware of, and the things we walk past every day without noticing.

Read More
298 Words | 2 Pages

I chose to read and analyze the poem titled “Wallflowers” by Donna Vorreyer and it conveys a theme of social isolation. The speaker is referencing the “uncommon words” to the abandonment that the subject endures. They don’t fit a particular mold that people will recognize, people don’t tend to use these “words” as often as they may use other words. They feel as if their lack of recognition will decrease their value. The subject begin to realize that if they find community within each other then they can create their own little community to escape the loneliness that constantly haunts them.

Read More
965 Words | 4 Pages

According to David Foster Wallace, default setting is when we believe ourselves to be the “absolute center of the universe, the realest, most vivid and important person in existence.” In his “This is Water” speech, he continues to explain that we have a choice of what to think about and we “get to decide how we’re going to try to see it.” It would be not just looking at something small, but looking at something as a whole. While Annie Dillard’s “Seeing” doesn’t make reference to his idea of default setting, her essay still had plenty of points about the idea of seeing other things. In Annie Dillard’s “Seeing” she show multiples examples of not just looking at yourself, but rather at the smaller things that people would never really see unless they were to really try to look and see.

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

Our beliefs, culture, and needs as humans influence our relationships with wildlife and how we view each individual species as well as how we treat/preserve them. After reading Wild Ones, it is obvious that the author Jon Mooallem and the others mentioned in the book believe that polar bears, birds and bees are specific animals that deem worthy of protection. Mooallem provides many examples of people who give reasoning as to why we should help preserve these animals. Mooallem uses the specific people’s backgrounds to show the difference of opinions in someone who has knowledge of the animal versus someone that only adores the animal because of the animals looks.

Read More
336 Words | 2 Pages

In this week 's set of readings, Damien focuses more on his childhood and life before prison. He talks about many different life altering events such as religion and relationships. One quote that stood out to me was when he was re encountering the first time he saw Deanna. He states, "she was wearing a pair of slacks that were so tight many would call them vulgar, and a low-cut blouse one could only say matched the slacks" (Echols, 126). A little further down he continues with, "this girl who reeked of sex" (Echols, 126).

Read More
282 Words | 2 Pages

PARAGRAPHS INTERACTIONS DILLARD’S THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS MY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS 1-7 Narrator interacts with microscope and slides She is curious and disappointed she doesn’t see amoeba. I remember looking through a microscope.

Read More
87 Words | 1 Pages

The following poems all teach readers the importance and significance of wildlife and the horrible treatment they too often receive from human beings. As everything becomes more modern, we can not help but stray farther away from nature. This increasingly insensitive attitude can have detrimental effects on the environment. Although the elements of poetry used in the following poems vary, Gail White’s “Dead Armadillos,” Walt McDonald’s “Coming Across It,” and Alden Nowlan’s “The Bull Moose,” all share one major conflict; our civilization 's problematic relationship to the wild.

Read More
1157 Words | 5 Pages

The author of Living Like Weasels, Annie Dillard, describes the nature of a weasel, and how people should have a similar nature to a weasel. Dillard notes that a weasel is wild, sleeps underground for days without leaving, and has an unpredictable thought process. It will stalk small mammals (killing too many bodies than it plans to eat), and will, following its instinct, bite its prey at the neck (splitting veins) or attack the base of the skull (crunching at the brain) and refuses to let go. One particular naturalist refused to kill a weasel he could not pry from his hand deeply; he had to walk to a water source nearby, and drown it off from his hand. Ernest Thompson Seton remembers an eagle was shot out of the sky with the bones of a weasel fixed by the

Read More
880 Words | 4 Pages

Kimberly Iurman AP Literature and Composition August 8, 2014 The Perfect Freedom of Single Necessity Everyone has their own perception of what kind of life they want to lead, whether it is a happy, successful or plentiful life. Some even aspire to have it all, which has come to be thought of as fame, money, and success. Dillard’s ideal reality leads to a simple life.

Read More
196 Words | 1 Pages

Annie Dillard’s essay “Sight into Insight” emphasizes how one must live in the moment and not sway towards others opinions in order to gain accurate observations on a situation. She uses nature as a prominent theme in her essay to represent the thought of looking past the superficial obvious in order to go deeper to where the hidden beauty rests. Dillard wants the reader to realize in order to observe clearly you have to live in the moment and let go of the knowledge you think you know on the situation. Dillard uses the example of her “walking with a camera vs walking without one” (para.31) and how her own observations differed with each. When she walked with the camera she “read the light” (para.31), and when she didn’t “light printed” (para.31).

Read More
619 Words | 3 Pages

“The Chase” is about an adult chasing some kids, but Annie Dillard makes the story transition from throwing snowballs to “wanting the glory to last forever” and how the excitement of life at one moment can affect someone in the future to show that the excitement of life will always be there even when one is no longer a kid. The story starts with a group of friends, imagining how a game of football goes and continues with the encounter of a stranger. From throwing snowballs at his car to him chasing them till they couldn’t run anymore. The whole experience will change the way she looks at adults. “We all spread out banged together some regular snowballs, took aim, and, when the Buick drew near, fired.

Read More
1361 Words | 6 Pages

In ¨The Chase¨ from the memoir An American Childhood, Annie Dillard recalls a memorable incident from her childhood, which remained throughout her life, even till the present day. She narrates the adventurous incident where she had voluntarily instigated a strange man -thinking he wouldn’t react- into chasing after her on one particular day. It persisted with Dillard still to this existent, in spite of occurring eons ago, because the pursuit presented her the sheer thrill she later valued and a life-changing experience. Annie Dillard begins the narrative by presenting herself as a tomboy, as she states how she only prefers to hang out with boys for girls are no match for her hobbies. Annie, who was notably different than most girls

Read More

More about Annie Dillard Living Like Weasels Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document