Schad Lloyd
Dr. Joseph Brown
ENGL 1102
25 March 2015
“Living Like Weasels” and the Quest for Identity
In the story “Living Like Weasels” a man has an encounter with a weasel and begins to admire and want replicate their traits and this to me relates to the quest for identity. The man essay starts with the writer in awe of the weasel and their stubbornness, prowess and freedom of their lives in the wild. He describes how the weasels even would go for such prey as an hawk that would usually hunt animals as him down. In the first paragraph he describes how the stubbornness of the weasel in how they clench on and of not let go. Once they decide to go after something they will not stop until there goal is achieved. He gives the weasel power and presence in his description, speaking of how weasel kills and his combat instincts and prowess.
He then describes his incidence with a weasel he saw and they locked eyes. He sets up the meeting with the weasel in great detail and recalls the happening as if it were a vivid dream. Using phrases like “shore they look like miracle itself”. These phrases show how much he idealizes the night and remembers the encounter. He then implies the disruption of this beautiful place by “suburbia”. The beautiful place where he saw the weasel is being encroached upon by modern society. when he sees the weasel he implies a mind transference and an ability to see into the life of the weasel. He wishes that he could have killed the weasel and taken his place and describes how he should have taken the chance to live like the weasel. He identifies here with the weasel as if seeing a mirror image of himself. It was as if his brain and the weasels brains were exchanged and he could see life from his point of view. He could see that he and the weasel aren't that much different and that he is the weasel. The weasel is him without all the inhibitions of the human society. The weasel is him if he could run free and get back to nature without worrying about the rules. the weasel lives as nature intends it to with no one adding rules to change his nature. This is were the main theme of societal inhibitions and how they affect him and society at large. In nature everything has a hierarchy and it is formed by the logic of survival and natural niches. In nature instinct and skill govern who is ahead and how your life will go. In society anyone can be placed in leadership or come to a place of power by chance alone or connection or just inheritance. The natural companion for this places creatures in a similar state at birth and with no inhibition that can prove themselves in world on their own and in their own natural