Questions On Virginia Woolf's 'Death Of A Moth'

Decent Essays
Virginia Woolf The Death of a Moth Questions Personal Response Blake Hadiyah Lucy Personal Response Summary and Meaning Question 1 Question 3 Question 2 Summary and Meaning sympathy beauty helplessness sadness struggle acceptance 1. In a 2-5 sentences, summarize this essay/speech/article.
2. What do you deduce is the main idea of the essay (the thesis)-- the chief point the writer makes about the subject?
3. What are the sub-points--the other important ideas--that relate to and contribute to the thesis? 1. Explain what connections you see between this work and your beliefs, values, experiences.
2. How did the essay touch you as an individual? In other words, how did it affect you, touch you? 1. In my mind, it's like the old saying goes: Beauty

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    1. Read the prompt 2. Read the articles: a. Highlight all the lines in the article that support your point of view (claim) in one color ( evidence) b. Highlight all the lines in the article that support the opposing (counterclaim) point of view in another color. 3.…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Ryan Oud Ms. Knoll ENG4UI 10 July 2015 Annotated List of Works Cited Bloom, Harold. Virginia Woolf. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. Print.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dillard is responding to Woolf’s piece by bringing the reader an alternate way of viewing death. In Woolf’s piece death is very final and there is not much sense to life or death in general. Unlike Woolf, Dillard focuses on the death of the moth much more than Wolf does, as she describes the life of the butterfly much more in length. To Dillard the moth’s life is not meaningless, it has a purpose, even if that purpose is fulfilled by mating and dying by flames. The moth’s body acts as a wick that burns as an illuminating flame for two hours, it doesn’t die without purpose.…

    • 203 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also in “The Death of a Moth,” Dillard not only continues to use the symbolism of candles throughout the narrative, she also mentions the number of candles or wicks numerically throughout her writing. When on the mountains, Dillard first only refers to “the candle” (7) when the moth begins burning from its flame. Later on, the author writes that the candle the moth continues to fuel “had two wicks, two flames of identical light, side by side” (8). At the very end, Dillard writes “I have three candles here on the table which I disentangle from the plants and light when visitors come” (10). This deliberate use of numbers that are in numerical order throughout the essay seem to suggest progression for the author. This most likely signifies the…

    • 746 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is well known that death is inevitable and unescapable to all forms of life. In Virginia Woolf’s, “The Death of the Moth ,” Woolf utilizes metaphors, powerful imagery, and tonal shifts to explain the struggle between life and death as a battle, that in the end, is never won. The uses of these rhetorical devices depict the intense power that death has over life. The tonal shifts throughout the piece strengthen the idea of an all powerful death. Woolf’s final words, “death is stronger than I am,” reveals the main idea of her narrative.…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anne Dillard’s “The Death of a Moth” is a representation of her view on death. Dillard puts the reader in her shoes when she explains the settings and events that go on around her. Anne Dillard lived a single life with her two cats which were yellow and black. Dillard first opens the reader to a single crustacean, the spider, which she says is intelligent because he is somehow managing to survive as opposed to the bugs that become trapped in its spider’s web under the toilet. Eventually, Dillard comes across multiple corpses on the floor, however, one particular corpse catches her eye.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A thesis statement includes a claim or the main points that are going to be used in the essay. Some writers put their thesis statements in the beginning of the essay, some put it at the end of the essay, and others put it in the middle of the essay. There is no specific place to put the thesis statement, it is placed wherever the author feels it will have the most impact on the audience. In this essay, Colleen Wenke’s thesis statement is…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The story analyses the importance of self-belonging towards humans and how it’s necessary towards rebirth. Not to mention the story also shows how equally important self-reflection can be towards humanity. Lastly, the story shows how showing affection can transform an individual to become a better person. In the final analysis, “The Moths” is a mournful story that proves humans ability to overcome difficulties and seeing endings as the beginning of a new…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Number 3 will be a good thesis statement because it is more complete and develop. It explains or gives the reader a resume of what they just read. It also ends up with a conclusion to the article pointing out the subjects, concerns and solutions to it. The bad one for me will be Number 2 because it is a very open thesis statement which may abroad many subjects, ideas, conclusions and reasons that are not written which does not make it specific.…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In her ruminative and contemplative essay, “The Death of a Moth”(1942), Virginia Woolf observes the demise of a moth as she sits by her window. This narrative essay uses poignant imagery, emotional metaphors, and changing tone to illustrate the great struggle between life and death and the inevitable fate of all living creatures. By representing all forms of life in the body of something as nugatory as a moth, Woolf is able equate the fight for life in all living creatures in order to reflect on the piteous nature of all lives that are facing death. Woolf uses an overwhelmingly peaceful and mournful tone, which expresses to the reader the plainness of the absolute power that death holds over all things; the audience is the entirety of the human…

    • 137 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The mind is capable of wandering many places. In Virginia Woolf’s short essay “Street Haunting”, Woolf travels the streets of London to get away from her confined room. She sets out on a journey to discover the potential and limits of the mind’s eye. In her journey, Woolf switches her viewpoints very frequently where her imagination twists her reality. Woolf’s use of imagery helps the reader create the same dreamlike image that she has in her head.…

    • 1380 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A. Summarize the main thesis or argument of each assigned reading for the week (one to two sentences). The article, “Evolutionary Models in Psychology,” illustrated by Michael Wheeler states that according to the Standard Social Science Model (SSSM), the mind is innate with the ideas of senses and some basic drives such as hunger, fear and the capacity of learning. Additionally, according to the article, the mind at birth is a blank slate, and eventually as the mind evolves it learns new things from its environment. Furthermore, evolutionary psychology is explained by Darwin’s theories such as natural and sexual selection and how the mind eventually evolves and adapts to its environments and situations. B. List a few questions you have from the reading(s).…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is widely believed that human beings cannot escape death. Virginia Woolf’s narration in the story “The Death of the Moth” displays the battle between life and death, which is never won. The writer employs rhetorical devices such as fragmentation and tone, as well as metaphors to deliver his message and advance the feeling of pity in the reader. In addition, Woolf attentively uses metaphors and other literary devices in a manner that agrees with the shifting of the tone all through the narration, which assert the ideology that victory in the battle of death is impossible. The author intends to show that the moth’s actions are reflective of human life and that nature is powerful.…

    • 1497 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Beginning with observing the pure life apparent in the moth, the intricate sentence structure mimics the fluidity of the moth’s actions as the “same energy which inspired the rooks, the ploughmen, the horses, and even, it seemed, the lean bare-backed downs, sent the moth fluttering from side to side of his square windowpane” (Woolf). Within this sentence, multiple clauses, the events occurring in the background, are linked together to the subject of life energy and the moth. As a result, this connection forces the reader to acknowledge that, despite the vast differences, the moth and the reader contain that same energy that awards life. When Woolf shifts her attention back to the moth after realizing that its zigzagging signaled the moth’s distress from the approach of death, the essay transitions to observing the moth’s vain efforts to prevent its life from diminishing as Woolf recalls,”I laid the pencil down again. The legs agitated themselves once more.” Despite arriving at the climax, the short sentences create a calm tone and reveal Woolf’s acceptance to inevitable approach of death.…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    ESSAY MACHINE - INFORMATIVE Title This should be an incomplete sentence that precisely describes the topic of the essay.. Be precise and creative Introduction Hook Sentence Open with a sentence that will capture the reader's attention. Consider a startling statement or a surprising fact. However, this sentence should have relevance to your thesis statement.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Decent Essays