Journal #2 - The Death of a Moth

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 opening are dead because a spider caught them in its web. They represent a colder side of death. The moth at the campsite dies by going into the fire of the candle. This moth, however, turns death into something beautiful by shining and making the candle brighter than it was before. This moth shows that something good can come out of death.


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

Dillard connects the moths to writing. She asks her students, “Which of you want to give your lives and be writers?” Dillard is trying to teach her students that something beautiful can come out of death, and it can come out of someone spending their entire lives working towards a goal that they reach. Writing something amazing is like the bright flame that the moth helped create.


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

There are two references to fire in the essay; when the moth dies on the candle, and the novel Dillard is reading, The Day on Fire. The fire symbolizes something beautiful that comes out of the death of the moth. After the moth had died, the fire burned more brightly and was a “saffron-yellow” color. The fire is described as beautiful and strong.


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 quotation is saying that he will try and make a difference now, and after he dies, his “spark” will burn out. This is what happened to the moth. The moth was doing things that she needed to do, and in her last moments of life and first moments of death she made a difference to the narrator. After her death, the narrator blew her spark out.

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

This quotation is saying that education is not going to class every day and taking notes, but going out into the world and using what you learned to make a difference. Burning brightly enough to make a difference is the main point of the essay and Yeats quotation.

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

Kafka’s quotation is saying that a book should be able to open a new world to the person who is reading it. Dillard is trying to stress to her students that they need to be fully dedicated to the book or anything that they are writing so that the book will be able to open up a new world for the reader.