Susan Orlean’s “Lifelike” first appeared in the magazine, The New Yorker on June 9, 2003.
In the article, Orlean’s main objective is to inform readers about taxidermy, specifically
from her experience at the 2003 World Taxidermy Championships in Springfield, Illinois.
The primary technique Orlean uses for her article is personal experience and relation to her
own life through loaded language, in order to emotionally sway the reader. She does this to
connect with the reader on a pathos or emotional level. The article remains credible
through her apparent respect for taxidermy and use of anecdotes from taxidermists
attending the event.
Orlean wrote the expos in a sequential manner, as one would if they were merely
annotating events as they unfold. Most of her article is written from her own personal
experience. Using this as her model, she begins the article at the opening of the 2003
World Taxidermy Championships. Right from the beginning, she utilizes loaded language
by saying, “the heads came rolling in the door” (1). Using these emotionally charged
words serves two purposes. Primarily, it is a hook, baited to catch the reader and coax them
into reading more. Slightly less obvious, it shows the metropolitan background that the
author herself seems to be coming from; that taxidermy is not, at all, a part of her normal
world. She continues to reveal this urban perspective in the second paragraph by stating
that the Crowne Plaza Hotel, where the event was being held, was a “nicely appointed
place that seems more suited to regional sales conferences and rehearsal dinners than to
