Annie Dillard's In Sable And Dark Glasses

Annie Dillard, in her nonfiction work, An American Childhood (1987), analyzes and focus’ on her mother’s small idiosyncrasies of speech, gesture, and attitude. She supports her claim by first giving examples of her mother’s actions, then she demonstrates her attitude towards, for example, products and how she’d fix them, and finally explains her mother’s emotional voice. Dillard’s purpose is to explain her mother’s involvement in order to prove you should take a stand in life. She establishes a defensive tone for the readers who need to take a stand.

Joan Didion, in her notification essay, In Sable and Dark Glasses (2011), recounts vivid scenes from her childhood. She supports her claim by first identifying her place in her family, then