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Living Like Weasels Analysis

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Kimberly Iurman AP Literature and Composition August 8, 2014 The Perfect Freedom of Single Necessity Everyone has their own perception of what kind of life they want to lead, whether it is a happy, successful or plentiful life. Some even aspire to have it all, which has come to be thought of as fame, money, and success. Dillard’s ideal reality leads to a simple life. She makes this belief clear in her collection of essays in Teaching a Stone to Talk. Throughout her essays she exposes her perception of life and challenges others views and beliefs. Throughout Living Like Weasels, Dillard challenges our belief of human superiority by forcing her audience to picture living life simply, as weasels do. Dillard described what she could learn from a weasel, she wrote, “ 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” Animals main difference to human beings is their inability to think as we do. Their lives are …show more content…

She purposefully attacks religious beliefs because if we are able to separate ourselves from our beliefs, then we are allowing ourselves to become more liberal about other ideas. By being less conservative, we can lead simpler lives without the complications of religious rules. In the essay In The Jungle, Dillard gambles with the idea of being more adventurous and closer to nature. She writes, “We are in this planet only once, and might as well get a feel for the place” Having your hair braided by local girls, exploring the forest, and seeing a tarantula are experiences that bring us closer to nature and lead us to desire simpler things. In Dillard’s next essay, The Deer at Providencia, she makes the point that suffering is unavoidable, we are all going to suffer at one point in our lives just as the man and the deer did. Pain is unavoidable, whether one is a human or an

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