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¶ … Annie Dillard's "Living Like Weasels"
During the height of the Great Depression in 1931, James Truslow Adams coined the term, "the American Dream" in his book, Epic of America, to describe the growing expectations of a better life for all Americans, a life characterized by the pursuit of happiness, significant material rewards and individual security in exchange for hard work and honesty (Lallas 162). In her essay, "Living Like Weasels," Annie Dillard makes the point that people, who are logical and live by choice, can learn from animals, who are illogical and live only by necessity. This paper provides a review and analysis of Dillard's essay to identify what choices are involved in attempting to live out the typical American Dream and how those choices differ from living according to necessity. The review and analysis concerning the differences between the lifestyles defined by the American Dream as opposed to those defined by minimalism is followed by a discussion concerning the impact that the nonfictional nature of Dillard's essay had on the depiction of the American Dream theme. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the foregoing issues are presented in the conclusion.
Choices Involved in Attempting to Live Out the Typical American Dream
Many young people are still brought up in the United States believing that they can "be anything they want to be" as long as they are honest, work hard and believe in themselves. In return, Americans are supposed to be guaranteed a lifetime of job security, a nice house (preferably in the suburbs) with two new cars in their garage and two-and-a-half...
While this eventuality has played out in real life for countless Americans who succeeded in realizing the iconic American Dream lifestyle, it is reasonable to suggest that for every one American who has succeeded, there are many more who failed. In many of these failed cases, the choices that were involved were far more limited than for those who succeeded but American history textbooks fail to highlight the disparate opportunities that are available to different classes of people (Loewen 37). As a result, the iconic American Dream has become an "American Nightmare" for many, and this outcome has resulted in disillusionment and disappointment among many Americans today (Thornton 597). According to Dillard, though, this negative outcome could have been avoided, or at least mitigated, by people making the appropriate life choices that relate to necessity rather than pie-in-the-sky dreams as discussed further below.
How These Choices Differ from Living According to Necessity
From a strictly pragmatic perspective, weasels do not make choices about what they eat. Weasels use their fine-tuned senses to pursue their prey irrespective of its scent provided it appears edible. For instance, as Wolff and Sherman point out, "To a hunting weasel, lunch is lunch" (333). Likewise, Dillard believes that she can learn from the weasel because, "The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating necessity and dying at the last ignobly in its talons" (2). From this perspective, the choices that many Americans make to achieve the elusive American Dream should be analogous to the manner in which weasels pursue their overarching dream…
Works Cited
Benesch, Klaus and Kerstin Schmidt. Space in America: Theory, History, Culture. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. Print.
Dillard, Annie. "Living Like Weasels." Print.
Lallas, Demetri. "From the People, by the People, to the People: The American Dream(s) Debut." Journal of American Culture 37(2) (June 2014): 162-165. Print.
Loewen, James W. (1995). Lies My Teacher Told Me. New York: The New Press. Print.
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