...Haven’t we all come to a particularly stressful and overwhelming point in our lives and thought to ourselves, “I wish I could live a life with no regrets or decisions to be made?” Annie Dillard wrote about just that idea in her essay “Living Like Weasels.” Annie Dillard is an American author from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who is known to write about nature in an attitude similar to Naturalists of the 1880s to 1930s literary era; she is also compared to several Modernist writers such as Emily Dickinson and Ernest Hemingway. Dillard published an essay called “Living Like Weasels” in 1982 in which she contemplated the idea of humans living instinctively as animals do, as a result of an accidental run in with a wild weasel. This essay contains several...
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...“An American Childhood” Reader’s Response Many details in Annie Dillard’s “An American Childhood” suggest that the author is retelling the events of an early childhood experience from the viewpoints of herself as an adult. Ms. Dillard’s essay uncovers the differences between how adults and children view the world and seek happiness. However, there are a couple points to this essay. It seems as though, one of the author’s main points was to convey the message that some of the simplest moments in her life were also the happiest and most memorable. For example, she says, “I got in trouble throwing snowballs, and have seldom been happier since”. Also, I noticed that the author seemed to be motivated to inspire readers to chase life’s experiences passionately until one is satisfied. In the essay the author uses two rhetorical modes: narration and description. Ms. Dillard uses narration to describe her perspective of what it was like to be a child in America. In addition to using narration she also describes the intricate details of that particular winter day “Six inches of new snow had just fallen. We were standing up to our boot tops in snow on a front yard trafficked Reynolds Street slowly and evenly; they were targets all but wrapped in red ribbons, cream puffs.” (91). In relation to the unit theme: The shaping of Identity this writing piece uses an autobiographical narrative and flashback writing techniques to portray the American Childhood. Ms. Dillard’s perspective of...
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...English 1501.1 30 September 2013 Compare/Contrast: Dillard and Rodriguez In Annie Dillard’s “American Childhood” and in Luis Rodriquez’s “Always Running” both share similarities. Both are autobiographies that involve children running from an adult, both stories paint vivid descriptions of their communities and childhood memories. The authors also dramatize their stories to make them more exciting Although Dillard and Rodriquez share many similarities the two stories differ. The most significant contrast about the stories is the environment the children grew up in. In an “American Childhood” Dillard grew up in a middle class neighborhood with nothing to be afraid of, on the other spectrum Rodriquez spent his childhood running from “gangs” “junkies” “police” and even “teachers. The titles itself contrast drastically, “An American Childhood” sounds pleasant, enjoyable, and cliché whereas “Always Running” sounds hopeless, tiring, and dangerous. Descriptions in the stories show how the environments differ, in “Always Running” Rodriquez describes constant abuse that Luis and Tito go through in paragraph 26 “We were constant prey” “sometimes the teachers who jumped on us Mexicans as if we were born with a hideous stain”. In an “American Childhood” it can be inferred that it is a more privileged environment because the man that chased Dillard left his car with his keys in the ignition to chase after kids that threw a snowball. In South...
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...Childbirth is usually perceived as the epitome of joy in one's life because it is the miracle of a baby being born. We expect everyone to feel joyful as life is introduced into the world. Annie Dillard is in an obstetricians ward and witnesses a nurse cleanse a newborn baby. Unlike the happiness one might feel when caring for a baby she utilizes the nurse Pat Eisberg and her job to show that the processing of babies has become nothing more than a boring task. The situation has become much like an assembly line in a factory as the babies are treated as they are objectified. Throughout the passage Dillard uses various rhetorical devices to show how the love for this phenomena is now nothing more than a dull and unemotional job. Dillard uses...
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...Most people might think snakes, hideous, slimy, and frightful, are the must impulsive creatures on the planet. On the other hand some people might find snakes captivating. Annie Dillard is one that is intrigued by snakes and in her passage “Snakes” she shows us just how amazed she is by the snakes. Annie Dillard’s usage of language helps show her love and appreciation for snakes. Throughout the passage Dillard uses descriptive diction to help express how she feels about the snakes. She calls the snake “perfect” and “unblemished”. By her usage of this diction it shows the audience just how much she admires the snake and how she views it as the most perfect thing ever. Also, she describes the snake as “clean”, “whole”, and “bright”. Her description...
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...In the eighth paragraph, Dillard lists everything that Rahm was able to do with his airplane. She saw him complete, “tailspins, flat-spins, figure 8’s, snap rolls, and hammerheads.” Dillard creates the list in order to convey how continues and flowing all of Rahm’s actions looked from the ground compared to the other pilots. The list also forces the audience to read faster, which represents that speed of the airplane. To the crowd watching, he looked “like a brush marking thin air.” Dillard includes this simile in order to further establish her awed tone, and to emphasize to her audience how her attitude towards Rahm has changed. Dillard uses another long sentence in the tenth paragraph. Instead of using periods, she uses commas to complete...
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...trying to teach us, to persuade us. For this reason, your first essay in WRTG 2010 asks you to develop an interpretation of one of the following essays: * Benjamin Franklin’s “Arriving at Perfection” * Annie Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels” - Zora Neale Hurston’s “Colored Like Me” As DiYanni explains in the Introduction to 50 Great Essays, an interpretation is not a summary; in fact, interpreting what an essay means can only happen once the reader has not only an accurate grasp of the content but has also gone further to observe details, connect those details, and make inferences about the author’s argument based on those details. Your interpretation, then, will not be a summary of your selected essay; instead, it will be your argument as to a primary meaning and persuasive purpose of the essay. As with any piece of writing, an essay can have multiple interpretations; thus, your interpretation should be arguable, debatable, forcing you to support it with enough analysis of the text to reveal to your own readers the validity of your interpretation. You should move beyond simply “what” the author is saying to “how.” Why, for example, does Dillard choose the weasel as our model wild animal? Or how do Franklin’s charts further develop his argument? As all of your essays in WRTG 2010, your essay will need a clear focus (a...
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...Instead of listing criteria that makes up a great essay, it is easier to read and analyze one. Annie Dillard’s essay “Total Eclipse” is a prime example of a great essay. When writing her essay, Dillard paid close attention to detail and holds her readers’ attention throughout the essay. For example, in her essay, she describes a clown painting as one of those life moments one never forgets. The way she describes the clown painting from memory is absolutely stunning. Another noteworthy example of her impeccable eye for detail is seen when she describes the total eclipse. Dillard describes how she views the world changing around her as the total eclipse is taking place. She compares the colors of the world around her to watching a faded color print of a movie filmed in the Middle Ages. Not only is Dillard’s essay relatable to her audience, she also leaves her audience wanting to read more. That key role alone sets her writing apart from other...
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...In the essay “An American Childhood” written by Annie Dillard, Dillard describes her mother and the influence her mother had in her. Her mother main purpose was to teach her daughters to be open their eyes and find out thing for themselves. The mothers odd way of behaving it’s main purpose is to teach her daughter. Dillard’s mother was an intelligent individual and never took a no for an answer. In the essay Dillard said, “When we moved across town, she persuaded the U.S Postal Office to let her keep her old address-forever-because she’d had stationary printed”. Her daughter seeing this think if she can do that then anything is possible. Even Dillard said,”I don’t know how she did it. Every new post office worker, over decades, needed to learn that although the Doaks’ mail is addressed to here, it must be delivered to there”. It takes a person with determination in order to change the policy for just one person and Annie Dillard’s mother made that happen....
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...The next dramatic shift that Dillard includes is in paragraph thirty-six, and mentions Rahm’s death. She simply writes, “Rahm smashed up in front of King Hussein, in Jordan, during a performance.” This shift is used in order to emphasize how sudden and instantaneous death is. Dillard had no warning about Rahm’s death, and neither did her audience. The shift also works to create a contrast between reality and the abstract. It creates this contrast because the audience was captivated and put into a daze by Dillard’s imagery, and they were ripped back into reality by her sudden shift. Also in the thirty-sixth paragraph, Dillard mentions how she was isolated from the rest of the world. On the “remote island…” that she and her husband were living on, they were “cut off from...
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...Rhetorical Précis “The Death of the Moth” By Annie Dillard Annie Dillard in her essay, “The Death of the Moth” (1945), asserts that in order for her life to have meaning, she would have to do something that outlasted her life as a human being. Dillard supports her assertion by comparing her purpose in life to the one moth that did not turn to ash in the midst of the fire but flourished in spite of its last moments. The author’s purpose is to share an anecdote as to explain why she is the way she is in order to inspire another generation of writers. The author writes in an awestruck tone for the class she is speaking to so they may realize just how poetic life as a writer can be. “Black Men and Public Space” By Brent Staples Brent...
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...creatures with the desire to move hastily using our first instinct. What makes human superior above all creatures is our ability to elect on conscientious decisions that is, human instinct. Annie Dillard’s “Living Like Weasels’s” does not perceive it that way. Dillard’s essay is an exploration of how to live life. She suggests living life in simplicity without any complications or restrictions. She also stated that we can do whatever we want. “We can live any way we want.” (Dillard 101) She is a writer of nature and looks at it for inspiration. She introduced the scenery by the Hollins pond also called Murray’s Pond, as calm and inhibits a portrayal of open mind allowing deep observation and connection to nature. She comes across a weasel with analysis of its characteristics and behavior, she thought of evaluating her own life. “I would like to learn, or remember, how to live.” (Dillard 100) She then suggests what we can learn from a weasel’s nature of living. “But I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive.” (Dillard 100) She states that we should focus only on one goal and one goal alone. The goal is basic survival. We need to stop thinking and go by our gut - our instinct. Dillard also mentioned about her regret of...
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...Mr. Macomber English 3 AP Syllabus 1.5 English 3 AP Course Overview Students in this introductory college-level course read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of nonfiction prose selections, deepening their awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, students develop their ability to work with language and texts in order to establish greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening their own composing abilities. C16 Students examine rhetoric in essays, images, movies, novels, and speeches. They frequently confer about their writing by conferencing in class. C 14 Feedback is given both before and after students revise their work to help them develop logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to increase coherence. Rhetorical structures, graphic organizers, and work on repetition, transitions, and emphasis are addressed. I comment on individual drafts, and I write memos to the class in a blog about whole-class concerns such as specificity of quotations, parallelism, and transitions. C13 Simultaneously, students review the simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence classifications. We examine word order, length, and surprising constructions. Loose and periodic sentences are introduced. We examine sample sentences and discuss how change affects tone, purpose, and credibility of the author/speaker. In addition, feedback on producing sentence structure variety...
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...The Concept of Nature in the Poetry of William Wordsworth and Robert Frost : A Comparative Study Chapter One Introduction 1. Background Poets have long been inspired to tune their lyrics to the variations in landscape, the changes in season, and the natural phenomena around them. The Greek poet Theocritus began writing idylls in the third century B.C.E. to glorify and honor the simplicity of rural life--creating such well known characters as Lycidas, who has inspired dozens of poems as the archetypal shepherd, including the famous poem "Lycidas" by John Milton. An idyll was originally a short, peaceful pastoral lyric, but has come to include poems of epic adventure set in an idealized past, including Lord Alfred Tennyson's take on Arthurian legend, The Idylls of the King. The Biblical Song of Songs is also considered an idyll, as it tells its story of love and passion by continuously evoking imagery from the natural world. The more familiar form of surviving pastoral poetry that has retained its integrity is the eclogue, a poem attuned to the natural world and seasons, placed in a pleasant, serene, and rural place, and in which shepherds often converse. The first eclogue was written by Virgil in 37 B.C.E. The eclogue also flourished in the Italian Renaissance, its most notable authors being Dante and Petrarch. It became something of a requirement for young poets, a form they had to master before embarking upon great original work. Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia and Edmund Spenser’s...
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