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An american childhood written by annie dillard essay
An american childhood written by annie dillard essay
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In An American Childhood, Annie Dillard presents the story of a girl growing up during the mid-20th century in the Pennsylvania city of Pittsburg. The underlying theme prevalent throughout the selected portion of Dillard's book presents a memorable image of her mother, Pam. Dillard paints a picture of a woman who is a bit of a quirky individual in possession of quick intelligence, boldness and with an irrepressible sense of humor. Annie Dillard makes several claims about her mother, including that “the drama” of some words "stirred her” (242). As a result, she utilized them in unexpected ways, usually in capacities designed to be funny or challenging, but with the apparent goal of provoking a reaction out of another. In many instances it looked as if the author’s mother seemed to thrive on behaving in a most unusual and an unconventional style. Dillard also points out and claims that her mother, Pam, especially enjoyed when people understood her games of wordplay and pranks and "called her on it" (243). Furthermore, the …show more content…
This would suggest that parents have a great deal of influence on their offspring in the course of their formative years, even those parents who may be a bit more unusual in some of their personality quirks or attitudes. Children tend to pick up on and mimic the traits of their mom or dad, both their negative and positive attributes. My own childhood was unconventional in some aspects, such as in the frequency with which we moved from place to place, much like American nomads in the latter part of the previous century. This would in itself have contributed to the evolution of my own character and subsequent behavior with my tendency to enjoy new places and experiences. It is certainly an interesting thought worth
Today 's generation have changed many ways since the beginning of the century. In “The American Family”, Stephanie Coontz discusses many situations that has occurred during the beginning of the 21st century and suggested solutions to solve those issues in the future. For instance, she argued that women are being treated unfairly, family are not discussing their problems openly, and institutions need to change to fit the families’ requirement. In “Complexity of Family Life among the Low-Income and Working Poor” Patricia Hyjer Dyk, argued that women still doesn’t have enough choices, low income families doesn’t have enough jobs, and Government are not helping many families. Dyk’s review of the scholarly research on low-income families support Coontz’ evaluations of the problems faced by 21st century families and the solutions Coontz recommends, like improving women 's lifestyle, discussing problems openly, improving institutions and changing institutions so it can to fit to fulfil families need. .
In An American Childhood by Annie Dillard, Dillard reminisces on her many adventures throughout her childhood living in Pittsburgh. Her stories explain her school, her home life, her family, and growing up. Dillard also talks about changes in her life, and how they affect her, and how she felt about others around her. One’s childhood is a crucial part of life, because it’s a time of learning more than any other time of life. Childhood is a time of curiosity and realization. What you learn in your childhood has a big impact on how you make decisions and act as an adult.
In her book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Annette Lareau argues out that the influences of social class, as well as, race result in unequal childhoods (Lareau 1). However, one could query the inequality of childhood. To understand this, it is necessary to infer from the book and assess the manner in which race and social class tend to shape the life of a family. As the scholar demonstrates, each race and social class usually has its own unique way of child upbringing based on circumstances. To affirm this, the different examples that the scholar presents in the book could be used. Foremost, citing the case of both the White and the African American families, the scholar advances that the broader economics of racial inequality has continued to hamper the educational advancement and blocks access to high-paying jobs with regard to the Blacks as opposed to the Whites. Other researchers have affirmed this where they indicate that the rate of unemployment among the African Americans is twice that of the White Americans. Research further advances that, in contrast to the Whites, for those African Americans who are employed, there is usually a greater chance that they have been underemployed, receive lower wages, as well as, inconsistent employment. This is how the case of unequal childhood based on race comes about; children from the Black families will continue residing in poverty as opposed to those from the white families.
‘Birth order theory can help explain why children raised in the same family environment with a strong genetic relationship can have such different personalities’ (Drysdale, 2011). The birth order theory says that ‘first-borns are leaders, the drivers and the responsible type. They love to feel in control and feel uncomfortable with surprises or feeling out of their depth. They are conservative in their outlook’ (Grose, 2013). The personality theory says that last-borns are majorly different to first-borns in their characteristics and traits. It states that last-borns are ‘the
Beyond genetics, parents have an extremely significant impact on the emotional, moral, and social development of their children. This is understandable, as many children interact solely with their parents until they reach school-age. Parents have the ability to determine a child’s temperament, their social abilities, how well-behaved or in control of their emotions they are, how mature and ambitious the child will be, and so forth. (Sharpe) Furthermore, parents have both ideals for their children as well as ideals for themselves, and how they raise their children is deeply influenced by this.
Have you ever thought what can cause a significant change in someone’s life? In the story “An American Childhood” the author notice that her parents do not have an interest in what she is doing so she developed her own interest.In paragraph 12 the author states “I had essentially been handed my own life.In subsequent years my parents would praise my drawings, poems and supplies.” the author was stating she had to do stuff by herself.
The study of birth order began over a century ago with Sir Francis Galton. A nineteenth century British anthropologist, geographer and statistician--- who believed that human species was ultimately improvable. In his research, he concluded that first born and only born children become well known scientists (Kluger, 2011). His findings resulted from the the fact that the nation still followed Primogeniture, when the first born son inherits the family’s fortunes. In today’s society, several families still put most, or all of, their first born son on a pedestal compared to their other children. Shortly after Galton’s discovery, Alfred Alder and Frank Sulloway came along and decided to take a deeper look into the relationship between a child’s birth order and their personality.
Convincingly enough, my interview with Ben showed me that in this case, my hypothesis was proven. Although our parents reside from much different backgrounds, we both have values instilled within us that we continuously live our lives by. Ben’s parents have influenced his life in a very religious way while my mother imposed her German ideals that strongly revolved around education and law. With this, I’ve come to find that it does not matter how similar or dissimilar two cultures may be, when it all boils down, we do not only inherit traits from our parents physically, but culturally as well.
It’s not easy to build an ideal family. In the article “The American Family” by Stephanie Coontz, she argued that during this century families succeed more when they discuss problems openly, and when social institutions are flexible in meeting families’ needs. When women have more choices to make their own decisions. She also argued that to have an ideal family women can expect a lot from men especially when it comes to his involvement in the house. Raymond Carver, the author of “Where He Was: Memories of My Father”, argued how his upbringing and lack of social institutions prevented him from building an ideal family. He showed the readers that his mother hide all the problems instead of solving them. She also didn’t have any choice but to stay with his drunk father, who was barely involved in the house. Carvers’ memoir is relevant to Coontz argument about what is needed to have an ideal family.
As century pass by generation also pass their traditional values to the next generation. some people still think the way their ancestors thought and believe in what they believed in. During the beginning of 1890 people couldn’t have premarital sex, women had to be the caretaker while men was the breadwinner. during this century those perspective have changed argued Stephanie Coontz the author of “The American Family”. Coontz believe women should have more freedom and there should be gender equality. Robert Kuttner, the author of “The Politics of Family” also believe that women should not be only the caretaker but whatever they want as a career. Robert Kuttner 's text does support Stephanie Coontz’ arguments about the issues related to traditional
An observation on the characteristics of an individuals’ personality suggests the causality in why they behave in the way that they do. Studies have shown that first-born individuals are more extraverted, conscientious, and neurotic than later born individuals (Herrera & Zajonc, 2003). First-born children tend to be more extraverted (Sulloway, 1999) and are more likely to boss and dominate their younger (Sulloway, 1999). The first-born subject pool is also more conscientious compared to subsequently birthed siblings. The pool is often more successful in academics, organized, responsible, and determined (Sulloway, 1999). The head of the present generations gene pool will sometimes look for the approval of their parents by acting as a “stand-in” parent toward their younger siblings (Sulloway, 1999). They have a tendency to be parent-identified, conscientious, and respectful of authority (Sulloway, 1999). Lastly, the group is shown to be more neurotic than the later born individual, in the sense of being temperamental and a...
Some parents often wonder, what, if any, effect birth order will have on their children’s personalities. Genetic factors and other influences play a significant role, but the birth order within the family plays a larger role in determining the personality of children. Countless academic studies say your place in the family is such a strong factor in developing your personality that it can have a major influence on the rest of your life.
A website called “Daily Mail” titled “Is Personality Determined by Nature or Nurture?” was spot on. Author Nicola Rowe talked about a study that resembled my initial outlook on the subject. Minus a few minor details I agreed. Apparently “scientists found foster parents have a greater impact on personality than directly inherited genes from parents. Researchers at University of Hamburg used Zebra Finches to study how personality is transferred between offspring and
Amanda, somehow, finds a way to be both selfish and selfless when it comes to Laura. Amanda wants Laura to be happy and successful, but does not understand that Laura is too shy and unmotivated to be either. When Amanda discovers that Laura has stopped going to typing class she is beyond disappointing. When discovered Amanda yells at her daughter saying, “Fifty dollars’ tuition, all our plans- my hopes and ambitions for you- just gone up the spout, just gone up the spout like that.” Laura quit something as simple as learning how to type; this realization struck Amanda because if she cannot do that there is no way Laura could provide for herself without a husband. Mrs. Wingfield’s worst nightmare is is for her children to become dependent on relatives and not being able to take care of themselves. After Laura drops out of typing school Amanda says, “What is there left but dependency all our lives? I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren’t prepared to occupy a position. I’ve seen such pitiful cases in the South—barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister’s husband or brother’s wife!—stuck away in some little mousetrap of a room—encouraged by one in-law to visit another—little birdlike women without any nest—eating the crust of humility all their life!. Amanda had always wanted for Laura to find a nice husband, but then the situation became desperate when the younger women
During the 1920’s Alfred Adler began research into a topic that would forever impact the behavioral sciences; he studied the role of one’s birth order and how it influenced personality (Eckstein & Kaufman, 2012). This concept arouses my interest because of how personal it is to me; I come from a larger family and witnessed the very traits they discuss in the article in my siblings and myself as well. Indeed I am a firm believer that birth order is significantly related to presence of certain personality traits in a person because of the different experiences and parenting styles each child grows up with. Additionally, I have devised my own type of principle relating to middle children, like myself, in larger families with lengthy age gaps.