Lauren Berkman
August 5, 2015
AP Language
Living Like Weasels Commentary
In “Living Like Weasels”, Annie Dillard uses a literal description of the life of a weasel and applies it figuratively to
humanity. The passage explores the possibility of mankind “living as {we} are meant to, yielding at every moment
to the freedom of single necessity.” Although the initial thought of living this way is absurd, Dillard uses poignant
imagery and thought provoking comparisons to implore, even logically persuade, readers to consider her ideas of
freedom.
Dillard begins with a literal description of the weasel, and it’s wild and violent characteristics. She uses powerful
diction to paint the picture of the nature of the weasel. The vivid descriptions of the weasel “crunching {it’s prey’s}
brain” or “socketing” into the hand of a scientist elicit a sense of fear, or definitely respect for the tiny creature’s
capabilities. Although it is small, it is fierce. The ferocity and relentlessness of the weasel captures the reader’s
attention and demands further consideration of why Dillard would urge humans to be like these seemingly vile
creatures.
As Dillard moves through the passage, she highlights a personal encounter with a weasel at her home. She locked
glances with the weasel and the experience was so intense that it was “as if two lovers, or deadly enemies met
unexpectedly.” The intensity of her experience implies that the weasel is not only wild and untamed, but also an
intricate and complex being. Although the weasel is typically thought of as a lowly rodent, she ironically revels in
this encounter and being inside the weasel’s “blank” brain provided a sweet refuge from everyday life. Her
experience inside the weasel’s mind made her ponder a simplistic, feral life and lends to her view that life may
actually be better without all the expectations and frivolous details of our human lives.
Her use of logos to persuade the reader to live like weasels is defined in the latter section of the passage, as she
claims that “…we can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience… by choice.”
Because humans have the ability to reason, they can reasonably live without it, live by instinct. Ironically again
Dillard calls it “proper” to “grasp your one necessity… and dangle from it limp wherever it takes you.” She is
paralleling an episode described earlier in the passage in which a weasel skeleton was found grasped to the neck of
a dead eagle. It wouldn’t seem proper at all to even hypothetically be so devoted to something to let all of your
humanity go with the wind. However, Dillard feels that it would actually make us more free, more alive, more
human to let ourselves be strictly unrestricted.
Perhaps it would be better to live like weasels. So often we are caught in the suburbia of life… the place that
alternates “fields and wood”, like Dillard’s Hollins pond. How tragic that often we litter our lives with nonsense, the
way that the beer cans litter the underbrush and the motorcycle tracks weave sidled with wild turtle eggs. We
often fill ourselves with worry and doubt and forget to just live. I think that Dillard was trying to convey the
message that has become so cliché’: You only live once, you need to make the most of it. Live abundantly, free,
instinctively.