(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Living Like Weasels by Annie Dillard

            Wouldn't it be refreshing to live freely only in necessity with mindlessness like the carefree weasel? We as a human race could take direction from the weasel's approach to daily life. This could very well be the key to a simpler and less stressful lifestyle. .
             In Annie Dillard's essay: "Living Like Weasels", she starts reading about weasels because she had encountered a live weasel while in the woods. She begins by pointing out that the weasel is "Obedient to instinct" (Dillard 118). The weasel reacts to the world around him merely by his keen instinctive nature. We humans have good instincts but tend to not always use them right away. For example, in a dangerous situation, our first instinct to react is usually delayed by the need to first access the situation, to plan and think about what to do. Our actions must have meaning and reasoning because we are brought up to that way. The weasel would have already reacted by instinct and addressed or avoided the danger altogether and moved on. We might still be in danger trying to analyze our next move. Instincts become that little voice in our heads that we might choose not to listen to because we feel the need to control our actions. How many times have we wished we had followed our "gut" feeling about a situation instead of having chosen our own plan? We say we can learn to live with our regrets, but is that really living? Living with regret can change the course of our lives and not always for the better. Listening to our instincts or better yet living by them like the weasel does could make the difference between a chaotic life and a simpler more pleasant one. Imagine how much more enjoyable and fulfilling our lives could be without the looming darkness of regret. .
             "The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice" (Dillard 121). Dillard's statement points out how humans have to make decisions while the weasel just does what is necessary to live.


Essays Related to Living Like Weasels by Annie Dillard

1. Sinking into dillard's essay

Sinking into Dillard's Essay Throughout "Living like Weasels", Annie Dillard uses visual imagery and anecdotes to show the difference between the life of human beings and that of weasels, and to express her desire to live like weasels. After Dillard vividly describes Hollins Pond where she encountered a weasel, readers can have a sense of weasels" utter wildness and humans" arguable civilization. Hollins Pond is a suburban. Divided by "two low barbed-wire ... civilization is dead and rigid. Consequently, the different living environment causes the different life between humans and weasels. Th...

  • Word Count: 560
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Living Like Weasels

Annie Dillard's essay, "Living like Weasels" gives one a new approach on life, through the eyes of an animal. She showed that sometimes, the way an animal acted should be followed by humans. In this case, the stubbornness of the weasel was something humans could try and follow. She tells the audience of her experience, describing each detail beautifully, allowing the reader ... to envision her scene. The way Dillard ... the weasel, telling of their stubborn disposition. She then took the reader into why she was bothering with the background information of the weasels by tying in her personal...

  • Word Count: 944
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

3. At Land by Maya Deren

... presents a vision of self-actualization through an elaborate series of symbols. Although presented in a different medium, Annie Dillard's "Living Like Weasels" is also a tale to being true to oneself by living instinctively. Deren's short and silent film demonstrates the protagonist's long journey to finding her true self in a dream-like atmosphere filled with numerous metaphors left for the viewer to interpret. Both artistic works provide powerful ... in Deren's At Land share the same principal as the metaphor of the weasel in Annie Dillard's "Living Like Weasels". The weasel knows not...

  • Word Count: 655
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Thoreau vs. Dillard: Simple Life

... a way where instinct and necessity govern all parts of awareness, why not live an entire lifetime in that manner? In the essays "Why I Went to the Woods,"" by Henry David Thoreau, and "Living Like Weasels,"" by Annie Dillard, life is depicted as being more pleasant and beneficial when lived in the simplest form. According to Thoreau, life for most has been tainted with unnecessary items and ... on the subject. She tackles the theme with excitement and yearning; yet, unlike Thoreau, she doesn't spew words of disgust toward the way people are living. After the revelation she experienced dur...

  • Word Count: 733
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question