Holy The Firm Analysis

Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard, creates an analogy between Dillard as a writer and a burning moth. This moth flies into the candlelight while she is reading and Dillard simply watched the moth burn for two hours. Dillard asks herself questions while observing the dying moth such as “Had she been new, or old? Had she mated and laid her eggs, had she done her work?”. The last question examines the fact that the moth probably hasn’t finished her job in life much like Dillard hasn’t finished the necessary things in her life before she became a writer. The author later goes on to discuss that she asked people in her class, “Which of you want to give your lives and be writers?”. By saying “give your lives”, Dillard refers to the moth burning and