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 essay’s opening are purposeless and jumbled, flying about “in a confusion of arching strips of chitin like peeling varnishes.” The moths at her house have no purpose while the moths at the camp plunge headfirst into the fire of her candle and burn.
2. What lesson does the moth provide that Dillard takes back to her students?
The moth is a lesson about life and being a writer. Dillard visualizes the burning moth as an analogy for a good writer and tries to show this to her students. She says that a good writer puts everything they have into their work, so much that they burn up in the flames.
3. How many references are there to fire in the essay? What’s the larger significance of fire in the essay?
The novel that “made me (Dillard) want to be a writer when I was sixteen” is called a The Day on Fire. Her candle and the moths that keep flying into it are a reference to fire Finally at the end she says that she lights 3 candles whenever visitors come and move “light over everyone’s faces.” The greater significance of fire in the essay is that it needs fuel to function, the moth is the fuel and the moth symbolizes a writers passion to write.
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 quote is significant to the overall theme of the novel because Jack London’s point is very similar to Dillard’s. In order to be a good writer or exceptional at anything one must burn the brightest and longest, however the flames will eventually consume you.
b. “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
-William Butler Yeats
This quote is significant to the passage because in the narrative the author tries to teach her students that to become a writer you have to truly put your whole self into your works. However, if you do this you will burn yourself out eventually. Yeats says that education is the lighting of a fire.
c. “A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.”
-Franz Kafka
This quote relates to the moth narrative because in the narrative the author talks about going at your life with a broadax. She is telling her students that you need to go at your life hard and aspire to be great. If you don’t have this you shouldn’t be a writer.
