The Meaning of the MothFor class, we read “The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf and “The Death of a Moth of Night” by Annie Dillard. This was the first time I had read either of these essays and I discovered a new respect for their writing style. I think the amount of detail they put into both essays was astonishing. But what impressed me the most was the difference between the types of details. In Dillard's essay, she writes about her life alone, then moves on to a moth she saw burst into flames of its own accord. The way Dillard describes the moth is almost like the way someone would describe a dream or fantasy. It depicts the moth as “golden” and its wings resemble angel wings. These depictions draw a vivid picture of the butterfly and its appearance while it is burned alive. Compared to Dillard's descriptions, Woolf paints a strong picture for the reader, but does so in a different way. The way Woolf describes the butterfly she encounters is much more precise. It uses a form of concrete imagery that excites the logical part of the brain. Ch...