How to make it in life

After further analysis on Annie Dillard's "The Writing Life", the message of the piece becomes evident. Throughout the piece Dillard has a bleak outlook on life, nothing makes her happy or satisfies her. She constantly complains about the events of her life, however she does this with a purpose to help the audience realize what it takes in life to be successful, not only according to societal standards but also to personal standards.

In "The Writing Life" Dillard constantly produces examples that reinforce her dissatisfaction with life. Her purpose is not clear from the beginning. She creates an anecdote of herself chopping wood. She continually fails at this task until she realizes that "you aim for the chopping block." (Dillard 3). This anecdote sets the basis for her argument. Even after this discovery she still manages to find faults with anything she does. At the end of the work, she ties all of these moments together, to ensure that if the audience did not understand her message before, they do now.

She ends her piece emphatically. Making a statement that can only mean one thing. "Aim for the chopping block. If you aim for the wood, you will have nothing. Aim past the wood, aim through the wood; aim for the chopping block." (Dillard 19). Her message is in order to succeed in life you must always focus on more than you want. If you only aim for what you want then you open yourself up for failure each time.

Dillard uses her life experiences in an anecdote to convey to her audience the necessity of focusing on more than you want. Her stylistic choice creatively reveals to the audience why this lesson is important. The anecdote is essential to the pieces success, without it there would not be a personal perspective and the audience would not feel that the situation was applicable to their lives.