Freedom in Paradox

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Dillard describes the exchange in glance between her and the weasel as “two lovers, or deadly enemies.”(2) This another opposing idea develops an ambiguity and uncertainty of what is going on here; also, it could be seen as a symbolization of the relationship of human and nature or even the concept of simplicity and complexity. The biggest difference between wild lives and human beings is that the prior one is simple and the later is complex in their mindset. As Dillard writes the story of “a man shot an eagle...and found the dry skull of a weasel fixed by the jaws to his throat,”(1) she vividly illustrates about how a weasel is sticking with his single necessity and not let it go. Preying or to say living is weasels’ instinct. Ironically, all the stories about how the weasels sticking with their instinct are tragedies in this essay: one weasel is “soaked off” from its prey and all attempts have been in vain; the other weasel even died when fighting back the predator. Usually people will illustrate their points by presenting positive examples; however Dillard did the opposite way. The reason for Dillard does not use a happy ending example is that freedom does not equals to happiness, and on the way pursuing freedom, there must be certain cause, which may even including life. The way pursuing freedom is not safe or easy at all, and the only key can lead to success on this way is called insistence—the insistence of grasping single necessity and not letting it go.

Although Dillard presents a beautiful and insightful essay, there is one most important concept that Dillard does not talk about: the ability to make choices. As talked before, the biggest difference between human beings and weasels are their mindsets. Making choices is the behavior happened after the advanced beings fully considering all the consequences would take in place afterwards. The reason that weasels do not make choice but to follow their instincts instead is that their simple mindset does not allow them to have the ability to think, to make a choice. It is true that sticking with the true calling and following wherever it takes is the rightful thing to do; however, how can someone know that the calling coming from his instinct is the “true calling”. Moreover, since we are all human beings, all from same species, our biological instinct should be the same; thus, how to explain that someone wants longevity, someone wants love; someone wants gold and reputation, while someone wants self-achievement. People will always get confused about what they want, and the only way to figure out one’s true desire is to experience as much as he could until the day has came, and by experiencing more, he is making choices at every moment.

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Work Cited

Dillard, Annie. Living like Weasels .

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Writing reflection

- What was the most difficult part of writing essay 1？

I think the most difficult part of writing essay 1 is to find the sub-claims. It is easy to find out the main claim but not the sub-claim. Also, how do those sub-claims support the main claim is a problem.

- What is your favorite moment from your essay

I think is to find out what is the author’s intention when she is writing this because there are so many details in this essay.

- If you were starting again, what would you do differently?

I would definitely start the whole essay earlier instead of before the due dates.