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 in the beginning are grey and dusty lying on the floor. They are just body parts laying there that cannot be identified. The one at the campsite is very descriptive. The dead dusty moths are not very inspiring, but the moth in the flame lights up and gave light and inspiration.
2. What lesson does the moth provide that Dillard takes back to her students?
It shows her that you should not just sit back and not try your hardest. The moths in the bathroom are read and not even recognizable because they just died in a boring house and place. They are unrecognizable as for the people who do not try to do big things are not remember. The moth caught in fire lights up and provides inspiration. The moth in the flame symbolizes people that go for the gold and try their best in everything.
3. How many references are there to fire in the essay? What’s the larger significance of fire in the essay?
The title of the book that she is reading has the word “fire” in the title. This is the book that made her want to be a writer. While she is reading, the moth flies into the fire and burns like a wick glowing gold. She leaves on candles when she goes to sleep instead of putting them right out. Her cat’s tail gets burned by the candle when it accidently got its tail caught in the flame. The fire is inspiration to show passion and emotion, it is a spark.
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 a philosophy on how she wants her students to live their lives and how it should be done. It is better to go all out in your live and never me content with mediocrity. You do not want to be the one that just falls off and did not live for anything. You want to be the moth that burned when it died because it died for something. Dillard calls the moth a martyr for chasing after what it wanted even though it died.
b. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
-William Butler Yeats
This is about education. She is educating her students and the reader by using the image of fire and all of its meanings. Something has to come from within you to push you to be the best. She tries to educate her students with what she learned from the burning moth hoping to inspire them because it inspired her. When you light a fire there is a spark and she is using education to spark an interest not just fill their brains with information.
c. “A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”
-Franz Kafka
This goes back to when she talked about using an ax. The ax is being used in literature metaphorically to show how to go at life. Attack the day and push hard to get excited about life. The book she read and the one she wrote both serve as inspiration to her and the reader as an ax breaking up the laziness within us and sparking our minds.
