reading response

Virginia Woolf managed to discuss a very deep theme in her story “The Death of a Moth”. Some may think that the moth is a very insignificant creature, and in reality it is. However, the moth faces the same fate as every other living thing on the planet: death. The author uses ornate detail in describing the moth, which makes it seem more significant than it really is. She also uses great detail in describing other things, such as what is going on outside of the window. As the world continues to go about everyday life outside of the window, the moth is barely holding on to life. One has to think that we are all just on the edge of death after reading this story, because life is so fragile and can slip away from us at any time. It is my opinion that Woolf’s “why” for this story is the fact that she was struggling with her own life, and the moth represents this. I also believe that in the same way the moth is trapped in its struggle for life on the window sill, Woolf feels trapped in her room, disconnected from the world around her. As the world goes by around her, she feels trapped in her own struggle. Although the life form that she describes in the story is insignificant compared to others, she managed to keep my attention by her great use of detail and imagery. All in all I believe that she did a wonderful job portraying her theme of how life is fragile to all things, and that we should live in the moment because in the blink of an eye it could all end.   

Drew Sprinkle 

Reading Response:

In Virginia Woolf's "Death of a Moth" she write from a room by herself of a moth that flutters about the room and ultimately dies trying to escape. I believe the why is death but it also shows how depressed she was that Woolf would write such a strange story about death. I believe this was an attempt to tell other people how she felt. As a reader the story really interested me by keeping me thinking throughout and constantly wondering what was the point of the whole thing and without reading the author information I would have never understood it however, by knowing information about the author and about her depression you can see that she is saying that she feels like she is trapped in one room and that if she could just get out from this window that she views the world from that she could experience the world and enjoy life and all of the worlds emotions. In my opinion I believe it is possible that seeing this moths struggle to escape ultimately lead to her suicide. As a writer I also enjoyed the story, Woolf does a great job of bringing the moth to life by describing it so vividly and only focusing on the moth. The part of the story that stands out to me most is at the very in where the narrator tries to reach out to help the moth but then retracts her effort for some reason it really starts to give you insight into Woolfs‘ own life. 

Response

Everyday we see struggle, some keep fighting and succeed but others fight and fail. In Virginia’s Woolf’s ‘Death of a Moth’ we experience the latter. This moth tries so hard to succeed but eventually fails and dies. If the moth didn’t try to escape then it might of lived, but its relentless struggle led to its demise. Virginia Woolf’s feels a connection to this moth, she feels like she can see success but something is stopping her from reaching her goal, similar to the moth being able to see freedom but the window pane is stopping it from reaching its goal. Everybody has some invisible force stopping us from doing something, be it fear or the risk of embarrassment.  This text is all about the struggle between life and death, if we stop trying we will die. What I believe Virginia Woolf is trying to say is don’t give up, even if the odds are against you. Even though Virginia Woolf was in a dark place when writing this text it doesn’t mean that she condoning suicide.

Death of a Moth Reading

 In Virginia Woolf’s “Death of a Moth” she describes an instance where she notices a little moth flying around. She describes the moth in such intricate detail, the reader becomes interested in what is the importance of the seemingly insignificant creature. As a reader, this story made me think about little things that I normally wouldn’t notice, like a moth “dancing” around. In the story she uses such detail, not only with the moth but everything going on around her. As a writer, the story made me notice her extremely detailed writing style. She used similes and metaphors to describe the moth and its actions and told every last detail in order to give the reader an accurate description of what was going on in the scene, providing them with a clear picture of what was happening. In this story I think Virginia Woolf does an excellent job providing the reader with a clear picture of the scene she was observing, her detail allowed the reader to understand and be able to see what was occurring. I did not however particularly like her writing style, although she provided such intricate detail I found it a little choppy and difficult to follow at some parts, which may just be because it was written so long ago that the language has changed a bit, but it was a little difficult to keep me intrigued. What stood out to me the most was the fact that she was so interested in this moth that she stopped what she was reading or working on and took time to watch the moth so closely, what anyone would normally overlook seemed to change her outlook on life.

The Death of a Moth

Everyday, we all see moths struggling to save their own lives. In this story, Virginia Woolf expresses her emotions and feelings while she watches a healthy, living moth turn into a helpless, dead moth. As Woolf sits by the windowsill, she describes to the reader what is taking place outside of the window as well as what the moth is doing. The significance of the story is to reveal how Woolf views the world at this time in her life. Being the reader, I see that Woolf is struggling with her life and she wants to slow down time, she wants to sit and watch a little part of life fight for his own life. She is concentrating deeply on the moth’s life but at the same time she is focused on the details on the life outside. As the reader, I feel as if Woolf is relating her life to the moth’s struggle to stay alive as the moth hits window to window. But also, Woolf is viewing the outside world as her getaway, as she describes everything so perfectly to the reader. As a reader, the story makes you think about your own life and how we don’t even acknowledge the little things in life: a moth fighting for its life. After reading the story, I will now look at every aspect the writer is expressing to the reader. The part that stands out to me most is how Woolf is talking about the moth’s fight for its life, that everyday I take for granted.

"The Death of The Moth" Response

In Virginia Woolf's essay, "The Death of The Moth", she is addressing the relationship between life and death. Woolf compares her life to the moth as she illustrates the moth struggling to stay alive. The trapped moth keeps encountering the window that is separating it from the free, outside world. Just as the moth feels trapped, it seems like Woolf is imprisoned in the same room with no connection to the outside world. Woolf writes about the moth's struggle for life because she knows that she is like the moth, struggling to stay alive knowing that one day she will eventually die. She uses such a small insignificant animal to explain how we are like the moth and that one day we will face the same struggle to stay alive. I believe that Woolf does a good job using a common experience of seeing a small moth die to compare life and death. She also does a great job going into detail to make it feel like you are actually encountering what she is seeing. The part that stands out to me the most is how she can use such a small story to compare a much more complex idea of life and death.

Tucker Helms

Moth Reading

          This text was not the easiest to read. It was hard to follow but this is what I got out of it... Virginia noticed something that people pass by everyday, a moth. Not only did she notice it, but she paid attention to it! I believe that one of the main points of this text is that we need to take a little time and notice the small things in life. Later in the text the moth slowly dies. The death of the moth represents how fast that things that are special to us can be taken away, not just life but anything. I believe this to be her "why", her main point. The introduction to this story states the fact that Virginia suffered from bouts of depression.
          Virginia's feelings toward herself are portrayed in this story. Maybe she felt unnoticed or unwanted, just like a moth. All she wanted was for someone to pay a small bit of attention to her, as she did the moth. As a reader and writer this text makes me feel like I have the power to write about anything and everything. This story is so deep but at the same time it is about a small little moth.

Ashley Denton

Death of the Moth

In Virginia Woolf's "Death of a Moth", she is describing distinctive details between life and death. She goes into so much detail about life and explaining an every day typical moth. Then the story turns and it explains how the moth is actually trying to escape into the outside world and everything is not as perfect as it seems. The moth is dancing, fluttering, moving and trying to escape, but ends up being stiff. I think this story is interesting because it turns such a small moment about a tiny creature into a huge moment in Woolf's life. She is comparing the struggles to the same struggles with the moth. Woolf believes that death is more powerful than life and in the end of the story, both Woolf and the moth are struggling for this fight.

Erin Duff

Death of a Moth

In "Death of a Moth", Virginia Woolf's fasination and interest in this dying moth is interesting to me. How she pity's the moth and then switches and admires the moths struggle with death make me feel as though she almost envy's the moth. She calls the moth a pure bead of life, yet also calls it an insignificant creature is what made me feel the envy. Virginia also twice mentions wanting to help the moth, twice picking up a pencil and attempting, though failing to help, it is almost as if shes putting her own struggle with life into the moth, though as death is claiming its victim, she realizes there can be no hope for it. Her last sentence of acceptance of the power of death seems to only strengthen my opinion of how she may have felt when she committed suicide. Her technique at explaining the minute details of her surrounding made it very easy to visualize what Virginia herself was seeing.

"Death of a Moth" Response

In the story, “Death of the Moth”, Virginia Woolf is watching a moth on her windowsill. As she watches, the moth, at first so full of life, begins to die. She struggles with the decision of rather she can help it but always ends up doing nothing and putting her pencil back down. I believe that there are two “significances” or “whys” to Virginia Woolf’s experience. Those would be the factors of life and the factors of death. She talks about both in great detail when describing the moth. I also believe that she is connecting the moths story to her own story because it linking up with her own life and death. In her life, she suffered from recurrent depression which can be seen in the moth when it starts giving up on trying to live almost like it is depressed. Both the moth and Virginia Woolf give up on their lives in the end of their stories. The moth stops fighting his death and Virginia Woolf drowns herself in a river.  The story affects me as a reader because as you continue to read you grow to like the moth however, it still meets its end at the close of the story. As a writer, Virginia Woolf inspires me. She does a good job of finding so many details in such a small event that most people would not even pay attention to and attributed it to such a controversial topic in people’s lives. The part of the story that stands out to me the most is the end. As a reader you do not see it coming because most other stories try to have the main character, or in this case, the main creature survive. This is not so with the moth.

death of the moth

In Virginia Woolf’s Death of the Moth, she encounters a moth who is stuck on the inside wishing to be freed to the outside where it can go and do what it wishes. She writes this story because she relates to the moth, because they are both fighting a losing, unwinnable battle against death. She realizes that death will always win and leads to hopelessness and depression, which after reading the introduction, I realize she was suffering from. Even when she tries to help it, she realizes that it would be a hopeless endeavor because death is the only thing guaranteed in life and she realizes it. She knows it is true, no matter what animal we are so she doesn’t get help for her depression and she doesn’t help the poor, dying moth. What stands out to me though is that I can specifically recall a time when I did the exact same thing, except it was a normal fly instead of a moth. I can remember watching it and feeling nothing but pity for it as it tries to fly to freedom before the poor creature’s untimely death. I had completely different thoughts though. I was looking at the power of death and beauty of life and how fragile it is, I just felt bad that this bug wouldn’t be able to live out its life the way it would want, but instead in a house where it would live the rest of its life. So while we both had similar events, she notices the depressing side where there is no hope while I simply feel pity for an undeserving fly’s death.

Death of a Moth

In Virginia Woolf’s “Death of a Moth” she is describing a small portion of time that changed her perspective.   This story makes me think she is writing about how she feels inside. She is sitting at her desk and sees a moth inside trying to get out.  She may feel like she catches people’s attention but is trapped by her shyness.  I believe she is trying to express her feeling through the moth.  The moth is trying so hard to get out of this window that it dies.  Maybe she is trying so hard to get out of her comfort zone that she feels that it is killing her.  As a writer after reading this I feel like I need to be more descriptive while I write, try to get every detail I can think of.

The Death of the Moth Response

Virginia Woolf tells the tragic story of a moth that catches her attention as she is sitting at her desk. As a reader I can relate to sitting at my desk and looking out the window and having my attention taken away by some small insignificant part of nature. However, I never thought writing about it could some how relate to a person's life. The significance of this writing is how it mirrors the authors life. The moth at the beginning is full of life much like Ms. Woolf. As life goes on for the moth there is a fight for life, "what he could do he did", but "death is stronger". The author was going through a fight for life as she was writing this, but allowed death to be stronger than her and ultimately commited suicide.  I believe that the why for this writing was that it allowed Ms. Woolf to share what was going through her mind without it directly relating to her. The author does a very good job of describing the moth and its fight for life. The part that stands out to me was the line "death is stronger than I am". This shows that the fight is completely over and the moth and author have surrendered to death. It concludes the passage very strongly. 

Blog Response for "Death of a Moth"

In Virginia Woolf’s “Death of a Moth”, she tells about the time she witnessed a moth die.  The moth was trapped inside her room, and was only able to see the outside world.  The moth tried all it could do to escape the room, and prevail from the pain of not being able to carry on.  When the moth realized there was no escape, it gave up, and laid there to die.  What in the world would inspire Woolf to recollect a memory so boring and dark?  Maybe she believed the moth symbolized her, and her depression was the “window” that prevented her from enjoying the beauty of the outside world.  Woolf knew what it was like to fly back and forth, back and forth, back and forth on a window just to discover that there was no exit, and she would later know the feeling of giving up, just like the moth did.  As a reader, this makes me think of all the “windows” that we all face in our life.  Some examples are depression, sickness, family, income, and education.  As a writer, it makes me appreciate moments like these even more.  Woolf could have just witnessed this moth die and think nothing of it, but she didn’t.  She knew, just like I do, that life is an uphill climb, and sometimes we do let life get the best of us.

Dustan Pate

"Death of a Moth"

Virginia Woolf is illustrating her life through the experience of a moth on her windowsill. As she sits and watches the moth, she identifies with it. She understands both the vibrant life it had and the sad death it died. Woolf is trying to give the reader an insight into her own emotions and feelings. She uses such descriptive writing that you can almost picture a moth on your own windowsill. But personally, I found how, in addition to her writing about what's happening inside of the window, she also describes what's happening outside. She isn't focused completely on the moth, she elaborates on what is going on around the moth and what might be affecting its life. So as a writer, when looking at a specific text, we can't just look at one aspect of the text, we have to look at it as a whole, including everything that affects it. The way Woolf describes the moth's movement inside the window in comparison to life outside the window is what stands out to me the most.

Mallie Easterlin

"Death of a Moth" Response

Woolf's why seems to lie in her realization that death is stronger than all life in the end. She describes a "moth" that is so energetic and full of life, describing it as one that was "nothing or little but life." She then tells of the death of this moth, one that is inevitable and that she said the moth struggled to escape. She said that the moth was fighting a losing battle, but it stood strong and fought against the immovable object that is death. This is the why, seeing that "pure bead of life" as the moth takes on the inevitable, seeing that one can always leave with a bang, something that spreads meaning. As a reader the story tells me that someone should do what they love until the day the die, like the moth whose only existed to live so it fought to keep living as long as it could. As a writer the selection taught me that there is inspiration in the smallest places, that the world is a text and until you realize that you can't take advantage of it. It conveys an idea that even the most insignificant ideas or phrases can mean two entirely different things to two different people. Woolf describes the moth very well, she lets us know that the moth was lively and energetic and she gives us every detail of its overly dramatic Hollywood style death. This allows us to see the scene or to relive watching a moth die if we have already witnessed this phenomenon. What Woolf does not do well is convey one general tone or mood, I found myself struggling to find if this is a depressing suicide note or a fight to keep one's name alive.  The part of the story that stands out most to me is the first sentence, when Woolf says that the day moth can hardly be considered a moth. This is because that fact seems so insignificant but it explains why the moth is so lively and unique, it almost makes the moth seem extraordinary just for existing.

Donald Perez

Stephen Fristoe's Responce

Virginia talks about a moth.  The moth is trapped in a room, and it cannot get out.  The moth attempts to accomplish an objective, but it always fails everytime.  The moth eventually dies while trying to accomplish this objective.  I believe the point of this story is that there are times where you need to accept failure.  You need to know that there are certain things that you cannot do, and that some of those things are life threatening.  This story tells me that there are certain things that I cannot do, and I need to accept that I cannot do them.

English Blog

The author Virginia Woolf is writing about a moth that she sees on her window seal. At first, the moth is full of life and then it suddenly dies. Virginia Woolf's "why" is her life is defined in this short sequence of events. She foreshadows her own future because she eventually drowns herself in a river. There is more than one "significance" in this short story. The story mainly talks about death but it also talks about life. The story effects me as a reader because you fell compassion for a tiny creature that is helpless and as a writer she amazed me how she could so vividly describe a small moment in her life. The story mainly talks about death but it also talks about life. She watches as the moth struggles to survive and she tries to help it but she realizes that her attempts will not be able to help it survive. Virginia Woolf probably did not realize that she could not overcome death just like the moth.

Blog Response 1: "Death of a Moth"

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

Dear Class...

Welcome to your first section of Composition 1.  I am so glad that you will be a part of my class this semester.  As a writer, I know that a huge part of how we write and function in the classroom comes from who we are, where we are from and how we see the world around us. So, I thought I would start the semester by introducing myself to you so you know where I come from.

           

I am originally from the dreaded enemy territory of Athens, GA. But instead of staying there and becoming a bulldog, I came to college at Auburn University.  I graduated from Auburn Suma Cum Laude in English and began my Master’s specializing as a transatlantic specialist with a teaching emphasis.  In my graduate studies, I have taught classes, both composition and American Literature, worked for the Office of University Writing acting as Dr. Marshall’s personal assistant, but also as a Defoe Research Fellow in historical writing research.  However, before all that, I sat in your exact seat. I was an Auburn freshman who got lost in the Haley Center, lived on campus, and had to start completely over in a new place. Auburn holds a special place in my heart, and as your freshman writing teacher, I hope to equip you with skills that will carry you through the rest of your college career no matter what your major is.

Outside the classroom, I love to travel and try new things.  Other cultures and languages fascinate me, and I have travelled to 13 different countries thus far. I think my love for places and adventure ultimately comes from a love of people. Life is made up of relationships, wouldn’t you say? Also, I can never get enough music, books and movies! And one day, I hope to live by a body of water – lake, ocean, river – I don’t care which! But still, the parts of my life that are of utmost importance are my friends, my family, and my Savior, and these are the details of my life that have made me who I am today. 

So, for your very first assignment, I want you to write a letter back to me.  Who are you? Where are you from? What has made you who you are today as you sit in my classroom? This assignment should be at least a one-page letter of introduction.  This semester, I will be working hard to challenge you and improve your writing.  In turn, I hope you will work hard to benefit from this class. I look forward to reading your letter. It is so very nice to meet you!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Laura Elmer

(a picture from my freshman year)