The story this week was very confusing through my first read of it. I had to re-read it two more times and I finally got a better understanding of what it was about. The overall meaning is revealed at the end of the story and everything leading up to it builds the overall theme of the story. The author introduces weasels at the beginning by telling us how they kill their victims including the story of the eagle shot out of the sky and how she comes in contact with a weasel herself. These short stories make more sense once you get a better understanding of the ending. The author even goes as far as comparing herself to a weasel by saying "I missed my chance. I should have gone for the throat." The author is reminiscing about things she regrets not doing in her life. I got the interpretation that the author is comparing us (humans) to weasels by the way we go after things in our own lives like how weasels go after certain prey.
The use of this strange metaphor to try to compare weasels choosing their food to humans choosing what they want to accomplish in their lives stumped me the first two times I read this story. The author says at the very end that we should grasp our necessity and not let it go which I believe she means our dreams. Ms. Dillard is saying that we must go after our dreams and "seize it and let it seize you up aloft even, till your eyes burn out and drop;", we must not ever give up the sight of our dreams and that we should be as the weasel is with their prey- never letting go of it.
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