Draw Conclusions Identify the similes and metaphors in lines 107-122. Think about what Dillard is describing in this paragraph. What function does this figurative
language fulfill?
"I missed my chance. I should have gone for the throat. I should have lunged for that streak of white under the
weasel's chin and held on, held on through mud and into the wild rose, held on for a dearer life. We could live
under the wild rose as weasels, mute and uncomprehending. I could very calmly go wild. I could live two days
in the den, curled, leaning on mouse fur, sniffing bird bones, blinking, licking, breathing musk, my hair tangled
in the roots of grasses. Down is a good place to go, where the mind is single. Down is out, out of your ever-
loving mind and back to your careless senses. I remember muteness as a prolonged and giddy fast, where
every moment is a feast of utterance received. Time and events are merely poured, unremarked, and ingested
directly, like blood pulsed into my gut through a jugular vein. Could two live that way? Could two live under
the wild rose, and explore by the pond, so that the smooth mind of each is as everywhere present to the other,
and as received and as unchallenged, as falling snow?"