Living Like Weasels
Payton Dull, Grade 11 “I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you. . . Seize it and let it seize you. . .” (Dillard IV). The author Annie Dillard has a purpose in this essay. Her purpose is to explain to us readers how we should live simply. She explains how to find our one purpose in life and focus on only that. Dillard uses certain rhetorical devices such as an extended metaphor and “carpe diem,” to further explain her advice or purpose in this essay.
Dillard uses an extended metaphor very well to explain her advice in this essay. She says, “once, a man shot an eagle out of the sky. He examined the eagle and found the dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat. The supposition is that the eagle had pounced on the weasel and the weasel swiveled and bit as instinct taught him, tooth and neck, and nearly won” (Dillard I: 2). Later on in this essay, the author says, “Then even death, where you’re going no matter how you live, cannot you part. . . let your musky flesh fall off in shreds, and let your very bones unhinge and scatter, loosened over fields, over fields and woods, lightly, thoughtless, from only height at all, from as eagles.” (Dillard IV). The metaphor is that you should never let go of your purpose. Hold onto your purpose for dear life, just as the weasel did when the eagle attacked him. The weasel’s purpose at that point in life was to hang onto life itself. He literally, held onto his dream. The moral of this metaphor is to latch onto your purpose in life, as a weasel would when it’s attacked by an eagle.
As Dillard used extended metaphor perfectly in this essay, she also perfected the use of “carpe diem” to help explain her point in this essay. Carpe Diem means “Seize the day” in
Latin, and Dillard used the life of the weasel to help show this theme. Dillard says, “The weasel lives in necessity and
Dillard uses an extended metaphor very well to explain her advice in this essay. She says, “once, a man shot an eagle out of the sky. He examined the eagle and found the dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat. The supposition is that the eagle had pounced on the weasel and the weasel swiveled and bit as instinct taught him, tooth and neck, and nearly won” (Dillard I: 2). Later on in this essay, the author says, “Then even death, where you’re going no matter how you live, cannot you part. . . let your musky flesh fall off in shreds, and let your very bones unhinge and scatter, loosened over fields, over fields and woods, lightly, thoughtless, from only height at all, from as eagles.” (Dillard IV). The metaphor is that you should never let go of your purpose. Hold onto your purpose for dear life, just as the weasel did when the eagle attacked him. The weasel’s purpose at that point in life was to hang onto life itself. He literally, held onto his dream. The moral of this metaphor is to latch onto your purpose in life, as a weasel would when it’s attacked by an eagle.
As Dillard used extended metaphor perfectly in this essay, she also perfected the use of “carpe diem” to help explain her point in this essay. Carpe Diem means “Seize the day” in
Latin, and Dillard used the life of the weasel to help show this theme. Dillard says, “The weasel lives in necessity and