Annie Dillard's Essay 'Living Like Weasels'
314 Words2 Pages
In her essay, “Living Like Weasels,” Annie Dillard explores the lesson that weasels can teach human beings. A single encounter with a weasel sends her on a brief but eye-opening journey into the mind of a “wild” animal. Dillard decides that “I would like to learn, or remember, how to live...I would like to live as I should.” Her yearnings imply that the modern human has forgotten how to simply be alive, too much distracted by luxury to have any thought of pure necessity. Even the firmly-grasping weasel has a lesson to teach the world about the so-called meaning of life. The lesson lies in the figurative, of course, since literally latching onto the throat of an eagle is of little use to a person. The natural being does not stress about every