Caught In The Widow's Web Grice

What comes to mind when you think of a black widow spider? Do you think of a monster or a killer? What if the black widow was more than that? According to Gordon Grice in his essay “Caught in the Widow’s Web,” a black widow spider is a symbol of something more in nature. He writes with an informative and scholarly tone. Through his use of narration, description, symbolism, and simile, Grice exploits the black widow to show evil and nature are typically unexplainable. To get his points across, Grice uses the writing styles of narration and description. First, he uses the mode of writing of narrative. He narrates how he became fascinated with the black widow. He tells the story of when his “mother took [his] sister and [him] into the cellar of our farmhouse and told [them] to watch as she killed a widow.” This was the first moment he was introduced to the black widow, and he was interested in them forever. His mother is portrayed as evil by killing the spider. She is normally loving and this evil behavior does not make sense to Grice. This demonstrates how evil

He aims to inform the reader about the black widow. He expresses, “[i]t provides no evolutionary advantages.” This shows that he knows what he is talking about and can prove his point by saying, “all of the widow’s prey would find lesser toxins fatal, and there is no particular benefit in killing or harming larger animals.” The spider does not need the strong venom it possess. The reason for the strength of the widow’s venom is unknown and unexplained. He uses scholarly language in his essay. He describes natural selection as, “inheritance of useful characteristics that arise from random mutation and tends to extinguish disadvantageous traits.” He also says each animal is “elegantly engineered for its ecological niche.” By using this language, it makes His tone impacts the effectiveness of his essay, by making it scholarly tone he proves himself to be a credible