The Death of The Moth AP English III Summer Assignment 8/19/12 Virginia Woolf’s essay “The Death of The Moth” is a piece that is effective in conveying her ideas through the use of imagery, symbolism and tone. By using the moth as a metaphor for humans, she shows that the way the moth lives its life is a model for human life. Her overall use of conciseness, both in her language and the physical structure of the essay, serves to both convey her ideas and to provide her with powerful images. Woolf shows writers that it is not as important of the quantity of words as much as the manner in which one says these words. Overall, as a person disconnected with the occupations of “reader” and “writer,” Woolf’s essay helps me to see that the most needs to be made out of life, because we are here for only a short time.
However the vision of death it presents is rather threatening. Moreover, the extract from Dracula relates to the theme of death at the end, rather than throughout. It relates to the death of all living organisms, unlike the poem, which merely correlates with the death of a human, the poet herself. The poem of Emily Dickinson, describes her death right the way through the poem. In comparison, the extract from Dracula is actually much more descriptive of the journey towards the tomb.
Part 2: Analysis of the Death of the Moth: The author’s consideration of life and death through death of a moth. A “bead of pure life”, the moth, which Virginia Woolf values is her determined symbol of the being. (106) The author uses narration of her own individual experience in observation of struggling insect in order to illustrate best the idea carried in the story. She shows how a moth flies from one end of the window to the other and at latter on, it lays pathetically on the window panel, waiting for its fate. There is quite a great lesson to be learnt in this story as will be seen in this writing.
Emily Thomas Professor Marshall English 1102 13 February 2012 The Experience of Death and Denial Throughout Life Although Miss Emily and Granny Weatherall are very different on the outside, their shared internal values and the way they experience death and denial are very similar. Death and denial can both create a significant impact on one’s life by causing many emotional and psychological problems. Death is something everyone has to experience in his or her life whether it is just a friend or a family member. Death can come by surprise or you can watch someone slowly die in agony, while being in denial can create the same effect. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Katherine Ann Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” they both examine the central theme of death and denial throughout the two short stories.
The Death of a Moth Most people do not take into account every detail of life. We are all too busy to stop and smell the roses, to take a second to notice the sunset, or even look at something for hours on end. Annie Dillard describes everything in her passage, The Death of a Moth, in immense detail. When reading The Death of a Moth, I was entranced by the amount of detail the author was able to capture in this passage. She paid attention to every detail of life when she wrote this passage.
In his blue gardens men and women came and went like moths.’ This simile reinforces Gatsby’s personality; it informs the reader how ‘popular’ Gatsby is as he personifies the ‘men and women’ as ‘moths’ stating how known Gatsby is, and also shows how interesting this mysterious character is; already giving the reader a chance to change their views on him from chapter one. This simile also illustrates the qualities about his home. The use of sibilance gives the reader the constancy of this hissing sound which describes how ‘free’ and ‘loud’ he is. Fitzgerald greets us to Gatsby in an almost anti-climatic fashion, through Nicks misunderstanding he is forced to introduce himself 'I'm Gatsby ' which doesn't seem to fit with the suspense that was building around the character, as Nick described him so fantastically in previous chapters we would expect his introduction to be on a much grander scale as they were very contrasting. However, Gatsby was introduced unexpectedly as he seemed very polite ‘I’m afraid I’m not a very good host’ this emphasises his politeness to Nick, he seems like a very genuine man.
One thought that Dillard spends a lot of time describing in her writing is the image of the dead insect corpses left from the spider in her bathroom. The corpses seemed so insignificant and unneeded, especially because even the spider saw no value in them (it only wanted what could keep it alive). These corpses seem to represent what a life would be like to die without accomplishment. They are like forgotten souls who failed to leave a mark on the world. "Yet under the web are sixteen or so corpses she has tossed to the floor," is a significant line because although they aren't recognized as anything greater than a dead bug, they served a purpose to keep another life (the spider) alive.
“Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf In the story "The Death of the Moth", Virginia Woolf illustrates the universal struggle between life and death. She portrays in passing the valiance of the struggle, of the fight of life against death, but she acknowledges as well the futility of this struggle. Virginia Woolf’s purpose in writing this passage is to depict the patheticness of life in the face of death, and to garner respect for the awesome power that death has over life. Woolf’s conclusion, "death is stronger than I am", provides the cap in her argument. Throughout the piece, she built up her case, inducing in the reader emotional states that lead to the conception of the awesome power of death.
In contrast, Heaney’s poem is very personal and shows the effects that nature has on him, rather than to everyone. Clarke presents a certain ominous feeling in her poem. This is evident in the quote “small birds fell: song thrushes…smudged signatures on light”. The death of the birds symbolises is how Clarke exposes the extent of the damage caused by the Chernobyl disaster. In particular, the use of the word “small” by Clarke is very effectively used.
Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force” (YODA, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith). Death is a natural occurrence and as so we should not be scared. “I Heard A Fly Buzz When I Died” a poem written by nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson who expresses her feelings concerned with death, confusing people with possible deeper meaning. This poem unlike the mainstream does not focus on the afterlife of death, but rather the dying process. Yoda stated that dying is a natural part of life.