Annie Dillard Living Like Weasels Summary

927 Words2 Pages

“Get lost in nature and you will find yourself” (Anonymous). I believe that this sounds like something Annie Dillard would say. Dillard is famous for her pieces about nature. She believes we have many lessons to learn from nature, and that if we lived more like animals we would have better lives. This is particularly the case in her story “Living Like Weasels”. I disagree with Dillard in this sense. Unlike Dillard I believe that it is our civility that makes us human, and has allowed us to grow as a species. In my essay I will tell you about my own encounter with nature, how we can learn from nature, and the disadvantages of being wild.
To begin, I will tell you of my own experience with nature. Once when I was younger there was a family of rabbits that lived in a hole in my backyard. There was a mom and …show more content…

This topic closely relates to Dillard’s ideas. She believes we would all live better lives if we were wild like the weasels in her story. Although I disagree with her position, she does make very valid points. In the concluding section of her story she writes “I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go…” (Dillard 122). When she says one necessity I believe she is referring to the necessity to survive. Animals such as weasels and rabbits do not want things that they do not need. They simply take what is essential to their survival and nothing more. Annie believes that this would be the best way to live. She wishes to “...learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical sense and the dignity of living without bias or motive” (Dillard 121). She is speaking of her longing to be wild. She wishes to live as animal; without anything pushing her other than her instincts to survive. To recollect, Dillard makes clear connections to her desire to be wild in her writing and uses many real life examples to add detail to her

Open Document