In class today, we talked about the significance of your story or the "why." What is Virginia Woolf's "why" in her experience? Is there more than one "significance" to her story, and how does her story affect you as a reader AND as a writer? Respond to her story answering these questions, pointing out what you think she does or does not do well, and tell me the part of the story that stands out to you the most.
I'm expecting 250-300 words, paragraph form. Due by class time on Thurs.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts,
Mrs. Elmer
Virginia Woolf's experience was interesting. Her "why" in this story was that she watched a moth go from being perfectly find to dying within a couple of minutes. Therefore, this changed her perspective on life. The moth was dancing from corner to corner and then all the sudden stopped and could not seem to move his body. As Virginia was watching this she was intrigued and confused because she had seen this "bead of life" being so lively and then it just died. She even tried to save the moth. That must have been traumatic, because she tried to save a living thing and then it just died right before her eyes. Before this happened she was puzzled by life, and now she is puzzled by death. The moth had only known life and now it knew death. This was her "why" experience because she could not figure out how this could have happened so quickly. This story causes you to think about how precious and sweet life is. I think this story shows us that we should not take life for-granted. Even the smallest aspects of life are important. No matter how small or big you are, everyone deals with death. This story just opens my eyes to how the little things in life are also important. Even though this story is about a moth and nothing people would think of as important, it still have things that we could apply to our lives as well. I think she did a really good job describing the actions of the moth and describing the process before it died. It really gave me a feel of what the moth looked like and how it was acting as it was approaching death. Also, the point that stood out the most to me what when she was watching the moth before it died. It is almost like a different culture. The moth was dealing with something that we all go through but just in a different way. -Molly Adams
ReplyDelete“The Death of a Moth” is a narrative about the significances of life and death. The author writes of all the things going on in the earth around her. How every part of life seems to have a certain energy that flows through it, giving it meaning for being here. As she sits and watches this moth live its life doing nothing but fly from window corner to window corner she can’t help but pity how insignificant the moth is. The world is a giant place full of possibility and this moth is only a tiny insignificant part of it, but even though the moth is an insignificant it seems to have to energy of the world in it. That inspires it to continue to fly from window corner to window corner. She then begins to ponder on how beautiful life is, no matter how small. The moth begins to tire and rests upon the window sill, and she soon notices that the moth is dying. All of that beautiful life that once flowed the moth was leaving it. As the moth continued to struggle she thought about trying to help it, but knew there was nothing she could do. The moth fought it’s death to the very end, but in the end could not escape it’s inevitable fate. Death then seemed just as confusing as life. This story makes me respect and question the meanings of life and death, and why we are here. It can allow to look at the bigger picture while at the same time make the world seem so big. -Aaron Baird
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad y'all are on the ball, but everyone else make sure to "post" your response instead of "comment" your response. Then, other people can comment on yours - Aaron and Molly, no worries though. These are great!
ReplyDelete"Death of a Moth" is a very interesting piece of writing. I think the "why" of Virginia Woolf's story is the journey of life in any living thing. Whether you're a human, dog, fish, bird our lives all take a similar path. We live, we have experiences, and we die. Our experiences are very different and so are our paths, but in the end we all have the same starting point, and same ending. When reading this story it really reminded me of myself. I am very easily distracted and love to do anything that takes me away from what I should be doing. I love to stop and watch the world pass by me as I sit in my room or at school and look out a window. It's always interesting thinking about even when you might want more time, or need things to slow down, you can't the world keeps going on there aren't any pause, or rewind buttons. I think the thing that stands out to me the most is just the fact that Woolf is watching a moth. In watching the moth it makes us realize that we need to take the time to watch and appreciate the little things in life, because just like the moth you never know when your life stops. This piece has reiterated for me the importance of living life to the fullest and always appreciating what you have because you never know when your life could be taken from you.
ReplyDeleteWoolf's writing is very vivid, and I almost felt as though I was sitting in the room with her watching the moth. She described the scene very well. The only thing that was kind of hard, was the fact that her writing to me was a bit all over the place. She would talk about the moth, then completely wander and explain what she saw out the window.
~Abby Duncan