ipl-logo

Summary Of Death Of A Moth By Annie Dillard

750 Words3 Pages

Death; one of the strongest words in the english language next to love. Death is always seen as a terrible thing, that bring darkness and sorrow to those around it; however, the way the author Annie Dillard has used in the amazing essay of “Death Of A Moth” gives Death a whole different meaning. As Dillard writes about the death of this moth her use of description, her changing tone, and her purpose for this essay brings life to the essay and changes the meaning of death forever.
Firstly, throughout the essay she often changes her tone from being very serious and mono tone, to being enlightened and amazed. Dillard uses this often, but the change from paragraph 7 to 8 is immense:
“One night a moth flew into the candle, was caught, burnt …show more content…

She kept burning.” she later says “a saffron-yellow flame that robed her to the ground like any immolating monk.”
From this you can tell that her whole thought on this dying moth changed once she saw the beauty in this death, and also showed her even when someone dies, they burn in your mind forever: “ She burned for two hours without changing”. She uses this tone change to show how amazed she was, and how her whole ideal of death had changed once she had seen this marvelous event. Secondly, Dillard use description thoroughly throughout the essay; the whole essay in itself is description to show the true detail she took into watching this death and how changing it was for Dillard:
“She burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning-only glowing within, like a building fire glimpsed virgin gone to God, while I read by her light, kindled, while Rimbaud in Paris burnt out his brains in a thousand poems, while night pooled wetly at my …show more content…

Dillards purpose is the most important part of this essay, it’s to show that even in death someone can be beautiful, and they will burn in our memories forever. This meaning or purpose is very hidden in the essay, but it is found when she describes how the moth lights up, and how she “burns for two hours” just like one would burn in our memories. She is very plain and sad, but when she saw the beauty of the moth and its flame she was amazed and no longer sad about the death; she appreciated the moth more this way just like how we appreciate someone more after they are gone. The author uses something simple like a moth but the true meaning of this essay is much deeper then it

Show More
Related

  • The Death Of A Moth By Annie Dillard

    468 Words  | 2 Pages

    "The Death of a Moth" by Annie Dillard is a reflective essay that uses vivid imagery and metaphor to explore the concept of mortality. Dillard uses the metaphor of a moth's life and death to reflect on the fleeting nature of life and the inevitability of death. The essay begins with a vivid description of a moth flying around a windowpane, trying to escape the light. The moth's desperate struggle to escape the light serves as a metaphor for the human struggle against death.

    Read More

  • Death Of The Moth Compare And Contrast

    966 Words  | 4 Pages

    She describes how, when the moth caught fire, it lit up everything around her. She was able to see the vibrant colors of her surroundings. She was inspired by the death of this moth and it brought back her motivation to be a writer. Towards the end of her essay, Dillard describes how the moth that got caught in her candle began to act a second wick. The moth “burned for two hours without changing, without bending or leaning.”

    Read More

  • Summary Of Terwilliger Bunts One By Annie Dillard

    556 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Terwilliger Bunts One,” Annie Dillard reflects on her childhood and the various lessons her mother taught her.(MS 7) Growing up Dillard observes her mother’s unique mindset and her love of language. Her mother’s bold personality inspires her to form her own opinion, defend her position, and think for herself. Dillard expresses her mother’s eternal impact throughout her childhood with the three literary elements tone, imagery, and word choice.(MS 2) Through tone, Dillard communicates her positive emotions toward her mother and the eternal impact she has on her. Throughout her essay, Dillard expresses admiration for her mother by conveying her mother’s dramatic attitude and communicates her own feelings through an appreciative tone. Reminiscing

    Read More

  • Night In Elie Wiesel's Night

    621 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel Night, the word night contained great significance and has very deep meaning. Elie’s memory of everything in this time period is dark and tragic. It is called Night to show what he felt like during this whole time period, and it felt like one long, painful night to him. Night represents the pain, fear, death, and darkness from Elie’s past. “We stared at the flames in the darkness.

    Read More

  • Burned Alive Poem

    329 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fire burns in the life blood of the followers of the rie. Beauty, no question a bout it. A dark ladled blond streak of jeopardy rushing through her veins. Black mercury seared the skin of her flesh. A dark mist flame ripping at her legs; her calves.

    Read More

  • The Symbolism Of Fire In Richard Wright's Black Boy

    494 Words  | 2 Pages

    I remember when I was about ten, in the fifth grade, I came home one evening bored and started playing with paper. Paper that I eventually set on fire, that eventually set my trash can on fire, scared me to death, and got my butt whipped. In the book Black Boy by Richard Wright, Wright has many central messages and themes. One major motif was fire and its metaphors and uses in the book. Wright utilized fire to show his development educationally, religiously, and psychologically.

    Read More

  • Living Like Weasels Analysis

    880 Words  | 4 Pages

    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”

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Night By Elie Wiesel

    275 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Night by Elie Wiesel, he writes how dark the world can be. Night is about a 15 year old boy and his terrifying experience in the holocaust .Night symbolizes the darkness that the Jewish people constantly felt, a time when they were suffering, and had little to no hope. Wiesel demonstrates this with the woman screaming on the way to the camp, when Elie’s innocence and childhood was taking away on the first day of camp, and Elie’s experience on the train going to Buchenwald. On the first day going to camp,there was a woman who was screaming about a fire,but none of the prisoners saw it. “As soon as night fell, she began to scream ‘There’s a fire over there!’She would point in space, always the same(p.24).In this part of the book, Night

    Read More

  • Story Of My Life Hellen Keller Rhetorical Analysis

    997 Words  | 4 Pages

    In detailing the events that led up to her change in perspective, she made note of the honeysuckle that covered the walls of the well-house, the warm sunshine that accompanied going outdoors, and the cool stream of water that she felt as she placed her hand under the spout. These details kept the reader with her in the moment as she felt something less simple, but still universal; the returning of a, “ misty consciousness as of something forgotten.” In using rich diction, she maintained a sense of intimacy with the reader which allowed her to call on personal details from her own life and theirs. Later in the passage, she described how, once the reality of language was opened to her, and she returned to the house, “every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life.” She had gone through a complete shift of perspective, one that, to her, was felt entirely through senses other than sight or sound.

    Read More

  • Death Of The Moth Rhetorical Analysis

    725 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the essay, “The Death of the Moth”, Virginia Woolf uses metaphor to convey that the relationship between life and death is one that is strange and fragile. Woolf tells the story of the life and death of a moth, one that is petite and insignificant. The moth is full of life, and lives life as if merry days and warm summers are the only things the moth knows. However, as the moth enters it’s last moments, it realizes that death is stronger than any other force. As the moth knew life seconds before, it has now deteriorated into death.

    Read More

  • Anne Bradstreet's Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House

    1138 Words  | 5 Pages

    In this essay, I will analyze the poem Verses Upon the Burning of Our House (July 10th, 1666) by Anne Bradstreet, a puritan who most critics consider to be America’s first “authentic poet. The poem is based on a true story as Anne’s house really did burn down and illustrates her meditations on this event, the pain she felt after losing her home and the effect it had on her faith. The main theme is Anne’s struggle to not become attached to material things. I will begin by explaining the rhyme, style, and tone of the poem, continue by explaining which literary devices and interesting features we can find and the effect they have on the reader, then I will analyze the poem and finally I will give a brief conclusion. Verses Upon the Burning of Our House is a poem written in couplets in iambic tetrameter scheme which makes the story flow nicely.

    Read More

  • The Burning Monk Analysis

    926 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Burning Monk 1963 Malcolm Browne Context “I was to see that sight again, but once was enough. Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shriveling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think…

    Read More

  • When You Are Engulfed In Flames By David Sedaris: Analysis

    648 Words  | 3 Pages

    Being engulfed in flames has many different meanings depending on how you approach it. Such as an enlightening biblical experience like the burning bush of Moses, the feeling of panic or stress while choking in the smoke, like the witch hunts of time past with people surrounded by old friends who wish to feed off their death, or when a sudden stroke of inspiration or anger seizes your heart, sending it into an irascible frenzy with a burning passion. In When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris we witness recurring themes of death and conflicting morals with a slight bias towards the author. Death is most heavily featured in the chapter

    Read More

  • Fahrenheit 451: A Short Story

    886 Words  | 4 Pages

    Montag sat by the blazing fire, filling every bone in his body with warmth, the same fire that he ran away from. He watched as the red and orange tails of the fire flickered upward, sending a smoke rising high above the clouds. The same fire, in which helped Montag destroy books, homes and much more, was now consoling him. He furrowed his brows, attempting to connect the book of Ecclesiastes to himself, as he did not understand how the intellectuals became a book, when a hard hand came down upon his shoulder. “Well aren’t you as scared as a bunny in a foxhole!”

    Read More

  • How Did Emily Dickinson's Life Influence Her Poetry

    1050 Words  | 5 Pages

    (Poetry Foundation, 2013). Dickinson oftentimes wrote concerning death, loss and pain. Several of her poems portray the meaning of death as an adorer, however a tyrant. Death was the article of apprehension, and however it absolutely was a mystically transfixed manner into Heaven- the final word unleash. The negative themes that appeared in Dickinson’s poems overlapped with hope, what's referred to as the inner world, or her motif of the idea.

    Read More

More about Summary Of Death Of A Moth By Annie Dillard

Open Document