Annie Dillard

Mind Games What separates human beings from most of the living world is the ability to be free thinking individuals, to which one can communicate and connect their thoughts to the everyday world. Even though humans may take this gift for granted, it is only when the ability begins to diminish that one seems to understand how crucial it is really is to everyday life. Although, even while losing this gift, the individual may not even know it, for the reality one creates is only visible to that…

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…

Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood describes the childhood of the author leading up to the day that she goes to college. It begins when she is only 5 years old. About 7 years later she is playing with some boys from her neighborhood in the winter and…

sudden change. For example, for my birthday my uncle gave me some money for whatever I wanted to buy and I was happy that what he gave me. One reason that someone's life can change is by receiving a gift. For example, in “An American Childhood” Annie Dillard gets a microscope for christmas and when she is playing around with it she finds the famous amoeba. When she finds the famous amoeba she runs to her parents to go show them but they are not interested. That is the turning point in the…

purpose in life. His mom encouraged him to work at a young age in order for him to find ambition and passion for something in the future. Then in "The Chase" by Annie Dillard, Dillard says, “ I would have died happy, for nothing required so much of me since as being chased all over Pittsburgh in the middle of winter”(Dillard 400). Dillard grew an identity because for the first time she felt accomplished that she was able to keep up with the boys and feel the rush of the run. She then realizes…

In 1987, Annie Dillard writes an excerpt in her book ,An American Chase, that portrays how differently society views boys and girls. In the world that we live in now, males are allowed to do reckless activities without reprimand, but at the same time if a female did the same thing we would be reprimanded right there on the spot. From birth we are taught to never come out of the perfect little box that society put us in. The social view for men and women are completely different just due to the…

Micheal Redhill shares his belief on what true measure of success in life is in his essay, “I Witness”. He states “true measure of success in life is how well we connect,” and that the “richness of every personal experience can be a seedbed for art.” He specifically provides examples of ancient literature, and other works of art to support his belief, therefore successfully convincing his readers. Micheal Redhill emphasizes the importance of connections, particularly on connections between…

this case, Annie Dillard’s “Hitting Pay Dirt,” presents a little girl who desperately wanted a microscope. After her parents got her a kit on Christmas, she played in her basement all winter and late spring until she discovered an amoeba and wanted to show her parents. As symbolic the amoeba was to Dillard, it was not as significant to her parents. She ends her short essay claiming her passion, “I had hit pay dirt…Anything was possible. The sky was the limit” (Dillard 96).To Dillard, the amoeba…

summarizes the duty of a poet, a writer, a man, not just to entertain readers, but to remind them of the hardships humanity has endured and to display this with a sense of pride, compassion, and glory. Which brings the audience to Jeannette Walls’ and Annie Dillard’s memoirs The Glass Castle & An American Childhood. Both written works describe tumultuous childhood full of ups and downs, but one unlike the other are…

David Whalen’s intent in his article, “The Liberal Arts are Dead: Long Live the Liberal Arts” appears to be an appeal to young students preparing for or just starting college and contemplating what they will study. The appeal is a supplication for consideration of the liberal arts as a foundation upon which to build a career. Whalen specifically credits the liberal arts as the basis of one's ability to apply rhetoric in their theories and arguments; that is, the liberal arts teaches us how to…