Terwilliger Bunts One, Summary and Response

Summary

Dillard¡¯s mother possessed extremely exceptional personalities. She had a preference for bizarre pronunciations. One day as Dillard¡¯s mother passed through the kitchen, she heard the baseball radio announcer shouted, ¡°Terwilliger bunts one!¡± Thereafter, she repeated those words whenever she was testing a microphone, and when someone spoke a foreign phrase she responded, ¡°Terwilliger bunts one.¡± Additionally, Dillard¡¯s mother loved unexpected but creative responses to conversations. Anyone who met her verbal challenges she adored. Dillard¡¯s mother was also mischievous. During a family trip to the Highland Park Zoo, she acted as if she had had a relationship with a young man who was with his girlfriend. In brief, it was ¡°torpid conformity¡± that Dillard¡¯s mother would never cease to strive. She always had the courage of her opinions, no matter how unpopular. When any person objected to her, her belief was so profound that she was fearless to take on any challenge. Particularly, Dillard¡¯s mother taught her children not to take anything everyone-says-so for granted; rather she wanted them to think independently. In a nutshell, Dillard¡¯s mother avoided clich¨¦s and craved for drama in her life.

Response

¡°Terwilliger Bunts One¡± by Annie Dillard is an amusing essay, telling the reader stories about her mother and her mother¡¯s unusual personalities. The purpose of the essay is to convey to the reader how special and remarkable her mother is. There is no apparent thesis, as the author begins her essay immediately without an introduction and lets the story unfold through miscellaneous stories and examples. Although the reader is not given a picture of the essay from the very first, the vivid language and the extraordinary protagonist compels them to continue to read.

¡°Terwilliger bunts one¡± is a phrase that her mother hears from a radio announcer talking about a baseball game. It demonstrates in miniature the essence of her mother¡¯s personalities; she is mischievous and dares to deviate from normalcy. Generally, the tone is simple, but the reader is required to work hard to understand her mother¡¯s behavior and words, which are very clever and sophisticated. Even the author herself spends years to understand what her mother means when she responds to the question ¡°Save stamps?¡± with ¡°No, I build model airplanes.¡± When a person opposes her mother, ¡°she would fly at him in a flurry of passion, as a songbird selflessly attacks a big hawk.