Anne Dillard “An American Childhood”
1. Summarize what happens in the story.
In the beginning of Annie Dillard’s story, “An American Childhood,” she describes playing football and how she and her friend Mickey were chased after throwing snowballs at a man’s car. The author compares the chase scene and the description of football to convey that in both it is “all or nothing”.
2. Give two writing strategies the author uses. (Dialogue? Detailing? Dramatic Arc?)
Dillard uses dramatic arc and dialogue to present the people and places involved in her childhood experience. She uses active verbs to create the rising action or dramatic arc as the angry man chases Dillard and Mikey relentlessly through streets and backyards. This enables the
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author to show interactions between people and it also provides information about and between characters. 3. What was the significance of the event for the author? The significance of the event expressed in the narrative is the importance of everything that happens in childhood and how children give their all towards an important goal. She also shows that in childhood, the way to be happy is to remain conscious of oneself and the world around you and this should continue into adulthood. 4. Was the significance of the event expressed in terms of the author’s identity in American culture (that is, her race, economic status, politics, gender, etc.)? Dillard uses gender in portraying assumptions ingrained in American culture about the role of girls and she does this in her discussion of being taught football, a game played in America by males, only because boys she knew were willing to teach her. She and the boys functioned under a value system ingrained in American culture which considers throwing a snowball at someone was unfair. Also, she uses assumptions about gender to illustrate the fact that the things girls do as children does not compare with what boys do. Read pp. middle of 20 (“Use the basic features”) to the end of the sentence at top of 22 and summarize material. You can skip the “Analyze & Write” sections. A good story uses action verbs and prepositional phrases to construct an action sequence in order to indicate the relationships between various elements within a sentence and to create suspense.
For instance, the word chased names an action in the story as seen in the sentence "He chased Mikey and me around the yellow house and up a backyard path….” The author also utilized details and vivid descriptions as a strategy used in remembered event writing. Descriptions are used to give a reader thumbnail images of the characters.
Using words and details in a story can provide the main impression by telling rather instead of showing an author’s feelings and thoughts in the childhood memory. In the showing and telling technique and author may use verbs like “felt” or a noun such as “thought” to create the dominant impression.
Direct strategies may use words that tell the reader which thought or emotion is experienced in the story. Steam of consciousness is a technique used when an author is writing about remembered thoughts and feelings as they occur in the author’s mind at the time of the experience. In autobiographical stories writers demonstrate what they remember thinking and feeling at the time of the event using the perspective of the present.
In St. Martin’s Guide read Chapter 14 NARRATING: pp. 561—bottom of 568 (stop right before “Narrating a Process”) and summarize the material in each of the black subheads “Using calendar and clock time…” etc. (skip all green
exercises). To create a sense of an events time, one of the narrating strategies used is calendar or clock, which helps to create the chronology of the story. The chronological order of bacteria causing stomach ulcers is used as one example of calendar and another example is one of time as noted in an emergency room event. To establish temporal transitions a writer may use an action sequence such as showing when, before or while an event occurred within a story. A onetime event may use temporal transitions as Russell Baker did to show what occurred after their flight test. A recurring event may also be used to show temporal transitions as in Monica Stone’s narrative. Another temporal transition may be to use a verb tense in describing a onetime event. An example is to use the past tense to show when an action occurred relative to the other actions within the narrative. An example by Chang-Rae Lee is a more complicated use of past tense by showing past actions occurring at different times. In the use of recurring temporal transition and helping verbs events can be demonstrated using verb tense to show routine events. An example is used whereby Morris used a helping verb and temporal transitions in describing recurring actions. Narrative action is a narrating strategy to demonstrate vivid sequences as in a fast moving sports story. Narrative actions can re-create a sequence with the sounds and visions of people in motion such as in a football game. A way to dramatize events in a story is to use dialogue to show interactions between people and it also provides information about and between characters. Gary Soto’s story is used as an example, whereby he combined quoted and summarized dialogue. Quoted dialogue uses quotation marks and is easy to spot, whereas summarized dialogue may be harder to identify. Remember unexpected adult actions and reactions and unpredictable actions.
Maggie's American Dream is Margaret Comer's inspiring biography written by her son James P. Comer. It also doubles as the autobiography of James P. Comer himself. It a great story of a person overcoming obstacles to reach their goals and dreams.
In the young life of Essie Mae, she had a rough childhood. She went through beatings from her cousin, George Lee, and was blamed for burning down her house. Finally Essie Mae got the nerve to stand up for herself and her baby sister, Adline as her parents were coming in from their work. Her dad put a stop to the mistreatment by having her and her sister watched by their Uncle Ed. One day while Essie Mae's parents were having an argument, she noticed that her mothers belly was getting bigger and bigger and her mom kept crying more and more. Then her mother had a baby, Junior, while the kids were out with their Uncle Ed. Her uncle took her to meet her other two uncles and she was stunned to learn that they were white. She was confused by this but when she asked her mom, Toosweet, about it her mom would not give her an answer one way or the other. Once her mom had the baby, her father started staying out late more often. Toosweet found out that her dad was seeing a woman named Florence. Not long after this, her mother was left to support her and her siblings when her father left. Her mother ended up having to move in with family until she could obtain a better paying job in the city. As her childhood went on she started school and was very good at her studies. When she was in the fourth grade, her mom started seeing a soldier named Raymond. Not too long after this, her mother got pregnant and had James. Her mother and Raymond had a rocky relationship. When James was born, Raymond's mother came and took the baby to raise because she said that raising four children was too much of a burden for a single parent to handle. Raymond went back to the service for a while but then when he came back he and Toosweet had another baby. Raymond's brothers helped him build a new house for them to live in and they brought James back to live with them. During this time Essie Mae was working for the Claiborne family and she was starting to see a different point of view on a lot of things in life. The Claiborne's treated her almost as an equal and encouraged her to better herself.
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. .
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.
The United States of America, the land of the free. Mostly free if the skin tone matches with the approval of society. The never ending war on racism, equality, and segregation is a huge part of American culture. Prior to the Civil Rights Movement equality was laughed at. People of color were highly discriminated and hated for existing. During the years nineteen fifty to nineteen seventy, racism began to extinguish its mighty flames. Through the lives of numerous people equality would soon be a reality. Through the Autobiography “Coming of Age in Mississippi” by Anne Moody first person accounts of all the racism, social prejudice and violence shows how different America used to be. The autobiography holds nothing back, allowing the author to give insight on all the appalling events and tragedies. The Re-telling of actual events through Anne Moody’s eyes, reveal a connection to how wrong segregation was. The “Coming of Age in Mississippi” is an accurate representation of life in the south before and during the Civil Rights Movement.
In the narrative, An American Childhood, Dillard’s mother has many amiable qualities that Dillard picked up as a child. Her mother also has qualities that make Dillard ambivalent. In the story, An American Childhood, Dillard’s mother has qualities that make Dillard either amiable or ambivalent.
"Growing Up" by Russell Baker is an autobiography on the troubles him and his family faced during the Great Depression.. While the United States is enormously changing from war to war, Russell tells his story of growing up in an extremely depressing environment. During the Depression, the major problems that Baker faced through the novel were about the financial difficulties that his family endured, ending in result of his father passing away, the struggles of moving from rural life to urban life, and the lack of Medical attention around the area.
The American Dream, yes everybody has one, it can be from living in a large house and having a million dollars to just having the privilege to live in America and try to make something better for themselves in this new life or new start they are trying to grasp. There are many traditions and dreams of every American today while some dreams are practical and some are not and most of all their dreams are from the heart. The American dream is really simple--it consists of a house a job a car three kids and one dog but this is not always the case.
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.
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
The language used portrays the characters thoughts and emotions for example she goes into great detail about her surroundings (her life) and the events which had taken place there .She talks about her environment as if she is closely connected with the associations to which she describes.
Effectively using these elements in a piece of literature enhances the reader’s curiosity. One prime example of such usage of these elements is seen in Kate Chopin's writing. Her use of foreshadowing and use of emotional conflicts put into few words in the short piece "The Storm" adds an element that is alluring, holding the reader's interest. In this short piece of literature, a father and son, Bobinot and Bibi, are forced to remain in a store where they were shopping before the storm, waiting for the storm to pass over them. In the meantime, the wife and mother, Calixta, whom is still at home, receives an unexpected visit from a former lover named Alicee. The two have an affair and the story starts to come together. The story shows us how we tend to want what we beli...
How does an author paint a vivid picture of a character’s thoughts? Stream of consciousness, an elaborate, somewhat complicated technique of writing, is a successful method of getting inside of a character’s head. It is not only seeing their actions and environment, it is also understanding their entire thought process through what seems to be a chain reaction.
When we encounter the narrator addressing the problems faced by the artist, he notes that "the ingenuity of the first novelist" lay in the realization that a simplification of characters that corresponds to the "suppression" of "'real' people" inevitably makes novels stronger, more effective in conjuring a sympathetic response from a sensitive reader. "A 'real' person," he begins, profoundly as we may sympathize with him, is in a great measure perceptible only through our senses, that is to say, he remains opaque, offers a dead weight which our sensibilities have not the strength to lift. If some misfortune comes to him, it is only in one small section of the complete idea we have of him that we are capable of feeling any emotion; indeed it is only in one small section of the complete idea he has of himself that he is capable of feeling any emotion either. (83)
Using different types of figurative language in a story helps the author delineate what he or she is feeling without being so distinct and obvious. Throughout any story, the author tries to incorporate things, such as figures of speech, to help their writing be more conspicuous compared to other writers. They want to stand out and make their stories better each time, with the reader wanting more each time they read. The figurative language in this book is an exclusive way to help the readers better interpret what this book is trying to say.