My Own Life and The Death of the Moth Essay

My Own Life

My own life is a non-fictional essay which the author focuses on his life towards the end. The author describes his feelings, what he fears and what he plans to do on the remaining period of time that he still have on earth. On the few remaining days to his death, he plans to detach from the things he refer to as of no concern to him since they are for the future while he is not sure if will reach.

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In this essay, it is clear that the theme death and life towards the end is portrayed. Throughout the story, the personal view of the writer is brought out in terms of what he thinks he should do towards the end. The last minute energies and flows are revealed and the mixed reaction of the writer to either still fight with life or lose hope and wait for his death peaceful are brought out in in this essay.

The common theme between these two essays is the theme of death and life towards the end which is clearly revealed in the first story of My Own Life when the author; Oliver Sacks begin by telling his audience how his life has changed since he was diagnosed of the liver complication. From the moment go, he prepares the readers on what he is about to go through and what he objects to do on the remaining time that he has. Most energies that he has he focuses them on leaving being a good reputation of love and friendship.

It is clear from this story that during death, or when someone or something approaches the end of life, at first he or she tries to fight and resist and then acceptance flows in and most energies are focused towards leaving being a good reputation or legacy behind and instead does what he might enjoy doing.

Unlike in the story of the Death of The Moth, in this story, the author uses a human to bring out his them to the audience. He uses a human to portray the reactions towards the end of life and death. It is clears that this theme, using a human as the device to bring out the theme, it is successful how the writer tells his audience the mixed reactions, the energies (both positive and negative) and the feelings that one gets involved in when approaching death.

In the quote "I cannot pretend that I am without fear but my predominant feeling is one of gratitude" clearly defines the entire theme in that towards the end, be it an animal or a human being, there is a mixed reaction and variation in energy both positively and negatively. At the end the device used to portray the theme for instance in this case, the human, gives up and accept death peacefully without fighting it or showing any reaction towards resisting.

It is thus successful how in this essay, Oliver Sacks uses his story towards the end to explain to the audience the kind of reaction and feeling that one goes through towards the end.it is clear to the audience therefore what is experienced which is as well clear from the other story of the Death of the Moth where the audience have been exposed to the same idea.

The Death of the Moth

The Death of the Moth is as well another nonfiction story that the author tries to explain how a day light moth strives and finally dies after struggling for survival. In this essay, the author explains how a moth tries to survive by flying from the left to right corners of the window trying to fight death towards the end of its life.

In this story, the writer starts by describing how a healthy moth should be in order to prepare the target audience of what they should expect from a healthy moth and from a moth that is nearing its death and towards the end of its life.

Just like in the previous essay, in this essay, the author also explains the struggles and the reactions that the moth undergoes towards its death. This is by first trying to fight and resist death and then finally gives in by dying peaceful without struggling at all.

Just like in My Own Life, in this story by Virginia Wolf, the theme of death and the life towards death is as well portrayed through the script. The author explains the reactions that the moth goes through before it dies. Just like Oliver Sacks explains his life towards the end, the moth at first seems to be healthy and there is a positivity that it might survive. Thereafter, it is overpowered by death and it gives in peacefully just as explained by Virginia in the statement "The body relaxed and instantly grew stiff, the struggle was over."

It is clear from the two stories that during death or when a life is towards the end, the owner of the life at first tries to resist the death by having some little hopes towards life. This then develops to a detachment level where the hopes of having life goes and the owner then gives in and dies at peace.

In this essay, the author uses the moth as a device to bring out his theme to the audience. The use of this literally device is creative as it is a different approach to describe a life that is ending. It is unique as the device used is uncommon and the least though of device. The author, however, is successful in bringing out this theme clearly as while going through the story, a clear comparison can be drawn in terms of the flow of the script between this story and that of My Own Life by Olive Sack.

Just like in the story by Oliver where he explains his feelings, the author in this story also explains how the moth is varied in terms of its behavior which might be representing the various emotions and struggles that it goes through just like the story where Sack has a mixed feeling for instance fear and predominance. The statement, "After perhaps his seventh attempt he slipped from the wooden ledge and fell off flattering his wings on his back" shows how at first, when a life owner realizes that his or her life is being taken away or ends, he tries to fight it and after some struggles, the death finally wins and the life goes away. There is a relationship in terms of theme between the two themes as the analyses of the two revealed. The theme of death and life towards the end.