Summary Of The Death Of A Moth By Annie Dillard

The first assigned reading was the introduction. After reading the introduction I developed a clear understanding of some of the reading that I may come across while reading Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction. The introduction by Scott Russell Sanders, while not as clear of a meaning that was presented in class, gave information about the history of nonfiction, such as when it begin and why writers utilize it. I understood that most of the stories will have some truth with a little bit of made up information to grasp the reader’s attention. The next reading was titled The Death of a Moth by Annie Dillard. To be honest this story did not capture my attention, and it was very difficult for me to distinguish the significance
“While I read by her light, kindled, Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brain in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my feet” (Dillard 184). Then when referring to the moth burning out the author says, “One night a moth flew into the candle, was caught, burnt dry, and held” (Dillard 184). Both of these parts of the story provide examples of how writer can become burnout. She allowed the moth to burn for two hours, which also symbolizes, a writer reaching that point of being burnout and going through writers block, but also allowing the moth burn for so long exemplifies the writers dedication and love for what they do. The moth also had several examples of alliteration, for example as the moth is burning the author says, “At the same time, her six legs clawed, curled, blackened, and ceased, disappearing utterly”. “Sudden blue sleeves of my sweater, and the ragged red trunk of a pine” (Dillard 184). These are just some of the concepts that were listed in the story that show the moth symbolized a writer and also examples of alteration throughout the story. The third story which really had my attention was titled The Fourth State of Matter by Jo Ann