Living Like Weasels Analysis

People care what others think about them. People are taught by society about what is supposedly right and wrong and how to live life “correctly”. Societal expectations write a rule book for life that cannot help but create a rocky development for every individual within any culture. Therefore, these expectations cause more harm than good for individual’s development. One can look at any society or culture around the world and see expectations put forth from an invisible, omniscient character. The invisible character of society creates rules and guidelines to live by. For example, in American culture, a general guideline of life is to receive a higher education, pursue a career, marry, have children, raise them to live successfully, then die.

Those who view the world through an imaginative lense see guidelines as obsolete. They believe they should be able to live their lives the way that they want, without someone pressuring them to be a certain way, dress a certain way, or speak a certain way. This pressure is damaging to the individual because it stifles creativity. In the article “Living Like Weasels”, Annie Dillard suggest that we have choices in life, and therefore can live any way we want, so we should live the way we are meant to (148). People are given so many opportunities in life, and it is fruitless to limit oneself and the knowledge one can gain just to fit in. Furthermore, the pressure to fit in encourages people to group themselves, and live within their group where they are comfortable. In the academic article, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?”, Beverly Daniel Tatum explains in detail how humanity would be much more peaceful and would be changed for the better if people were more aware of the complexities of their own identity and embraced everyone’s identities (349). Furthermore, she spoke about the oppression of subordinate groups of people based on identity, and the way dominant groups affect and are not knowledgeable of subordinate groups and the lack of the opposite (347-348). People are encouraged to accept the oppression they

As aforementioned, pressure goes hand in hand with expectations, and this pressure can cause some to break. When one steps outside the comfort zone of their group and attempts to chase after the goals of their true self, there is added insecurity and lack of confidence within the self and pushed on the self from outside sources simply because it is an unconventional decision. In “Living Like Weasels”, Dillard talks about how one should live their lives like the weasel, a vicious creature who is persevering and holds on to things so tight that in death it is still hanging on(146-148). With lack of confidence, individuals struggle to stay perseverant and hang on. Furthermore, the article points toward looking at one’s own life and actions to find deeper meaning in small moments of life, and to look at the lives of others to see the richness life has to offer (148). However, when one is self conscious and concerned about the indecision of future, they are limiting their ability to see how much looking around them has to offer. In addition, some of the pressures that society puts forth may be false in their justification. According to society, lying is bad; when one lies, they are committing a morally unjust act. However, according to David Livingstone-Smith in his article titled “Natural-born Liars”, lying is an instinctual, biological act that all organisms, plants included, commit in