Journal 2

Journal 2 - Annie Dillard – “The Death of a Moth,” from Holy the

Firm

1. How are the moths in the essay’s opening different from the moth at the campsite? What do the different moths represent?

The moths at the campsite show that everything in nature, human beings included, can help one another, in life and death. The moth’s death, it is helping to provide light for the woman on in the mountains. The moths in the bathroom don’t provide anything important and are insignificant. The campsite moths have a passionate intensity, and died in a vivid way.

2. What lesson does the moth provide that Dillard takes back to her students?

Light can guide you, and fire can be the source of your passion. Everything you do in life, do it with passion and make it significant. Everything in life, nature and human, alive or dead, can be helpful and seen good in some way, if you have an open, optimistic mind set.

3. How many references are there to fire in the essay? What’s the larger significance of fire in the essay?

There are several references of fire throughout the essay. Flames, burning, candles, smoke, and the book titles, ‘The Day on Fire’. Fire gleams, and can brighten up the heaviest darkness. It could also say that many different things can cause light. It also shows her passion and perseverance.

4. Address how each of the following quotes connect to Dillard’s overall point.

a. “I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.”

-Jack London

This is more of an outlook on life, saying that you should take everything in your life and turn it into something you are passionate about.

b. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

-William Butler Yeats

This is saying that learning isn’t just throwing information at yourself, it’s embracing what your learning about in order to further understand.

c. “A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”

-Franz Kafka

This is saying that the more you read can open pathways inside your mind that you never knew possible; it also relates to the axe in the story.