Analysis Of An American Childhood By Annie Dillard

An American Childhood by Annie Dillard is a memoir of her life and memories of growing up with a wealthy family. When she was five years old she recalled becoming more mindful of the world around her and herself. She found it interesting that her own skin was beautiful and tight compared to her parents loss and saggy skin. Dillard described many of her childhood events that made her feel alive and excited. In the Beginning, a young Dillard believed that a monster was creeping into her room throughout the night. But she eventually discovers that it was just headlights of cars outside her room. During this time period in her life she meets her neighbors across the street, the Sheehy’s. She was facilitated by Jo Ann Sheehy skating on the icy streets during the winter. But sadly her parents wouldn’t let her communicate with the Sheehy’s because of a racial slur one of the young boys told Annie to call her African American maid. …show more content…
Her father told her that the older the coin was, the more significance it had. So young Annie went back and believed digging deeper would lead to even older coins she stated,” I would switch to a spade and delve down to the good stuff: to the shining layers of antique Spanish gold, of Roman gold maybe brass-bound chests of it, maybe diamonds and rubies” (Dillard 40). Misguided Annie never found another coin in that particular alley. None the less Annie did not let her previous adventures of looking for ancient treasure stop her from continuing to have fun. During the winter Annie felt alive when she threw snowballs at cars. But one time Annie and her friends hit a driver who got out and chased them down. Eventually the man caught them but Annie describes herself as not being scared at all. The man only told them a couple words in order to admonish