Understanding Life and Its Flaws in Dillard’s Fiction
The author, Annie Dillard wrote this way to describe how weasels and humans are so different from each other. Dillard assumes as a fact that when it comes to understanding life, people’s flaw is what gets in their way is their unsatisfied need to be fulfilled. The rhetorical device that the author used in the sentence is diction. What Dillard means by “open” is that being free and not unrestrained. “Time and death”, hints to the audience that weasels are able to accept their time, whether it is their present or death; their days will come “painlessly”. The way the author used the word “painlessly,” shows that when it comes to comparing weasels and humans, it let the audience know whose death was more painfully. The diction in the sentence hints to the audience that there are some things that people are attached to and cannot let go in life, like how weasels died with no feelings.
Dillard kept repeating these words “noticing everything, remembering nothing,” to connect it back to how she uses the word “time.” This let the audience guess that weasels being able to accept their time and how the time they have right now is important to them all. But for us, the people, we do that is completely opposite of what the weasel did. We hold on to memories with a burden as they continue to stay with us for a long time. The word “given” indicate to the readers that weasels do not have much choice have in life while we are able to choose a decision with many alternative options. Adding more to what the author is trying to portray on the word “given”, Dillard used “fierce” to show tenacious weasels are when it comes to being determined on accomplishing anything that will save its life from harm. The last word the author used in the sentence is “pointed will.” This indicates to the readers that when it comes to the weasel’s life, it feels obligated to keep fighting for its life. How their “will” is the only thing that makes weasel want to fight for its survival. The author victoriously was able to accomplish on delivering what each word mean for the diction part and how she highlights the difference between the lives of the weasels and humans, placing them in a way that readers notice the demands in the society starts to increase more.
