Annie Dillard

The short story, The Chase, written by Annie Dillard interprets a non-fiction memory of her childhood. Dillard focuses on a single device throughout the short story, character. Dillard states, “Some boys taught me to play football. This was a fine sport”(Dillard 105). The author tells the audience that this character, which is the author, is a tomboy in her younger days since football is more of a guy sport. She describes how she played different kinds of sports, for example, football, implying…

of the Century such as Total Eclipse by Annie Dillard and Alice Walker’s Looking for Zora. What constitutes these essays as some the best American essays throughout the century? The most important criteria of a good essay is capturing the reader’s attention with a strong introduction paragraph. If your introduction is very attention grabbing the reader will continue to read and that is what you want. For example, the writer of “Total Eclipse”, Annie Dillard has a very interesting introduction…

Essay 4 In “God in the Doorway” Annie Dillard recalls multiple experiences that she relates to her shift in her perception of God. She begins the narrative recounting an incident from her childhood. Dillard speaks of a cold winter night in which a neighbor dresses like Santa and makes an appearance at her house. She responds out of fear because of her understanding of Santa as a monstrous figure who exists similar to God. Dillard, as an adult, creates a connection between the Santa clause of…

View From Above More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination. — Wilbur Wright: one of the first men to experience the sense of flying ~ ~ ~ Looking down, I see the fields of the Snohomish Valley. I see the twisting, glistening river as it flows out towards the sound. I see the roads lit with the reflections of the sun on the…

By her tone being quite didactic but yet jovial, Dillard is able to achieve Faulkner’s description of a writer’s duty. “….aware of its structure as a product of mind, and yet ….. see the represented world through it.” Dillard uses this to show that authors must make a connection between the real world and something that will interest the reader, something that will keep the reader intrigued…

Flocks Birds are subjects that the human mind yearns to understand. They can accomplish a feat that no person can do. In passages by John James Audubon and Annie Dillard, flocks of birds are described vividly through rhetorical strategies such as diction, analogies, and similes. Both passages were similar in nature, but each author had its own style. Seeing the flocks of birds deeply impacted the observers. It is evident from these passages that watching these birds provided joy and…

Every night she lays awake being haunted. In “An American Childhood” by Annie Dillard, it shows an example of direct characterization with an imaginative and fearful girl named Annie. Annie was always full of fright when it came to night. Annie expressed her terror by saying “I dared not blink or breath, I tried to hush my whooping blood” (138). She was so scared she couldn’t move. “I was a transparent, luminous oblon” (Annie 138). She was afraid of a creature at night coming to get her. This…

Life, Annie Dillard depicts her personal writing process, and she explains it using comparisons such as similes, metaphors, personifications, and other types of figurative language. Sometimes she specifically states her writing process while at other times she uses an example of something else as a description of her writing. The goal of her writing is to help others understand why she writes, and at the same time, she encourages and teaches them how to write. Throughout her book, Dillard…

When Two People See a Lot of Birds John James Audubon, the author of passage one, and Annie Dillard, the author of passage two, each develop a well organized piece with the purpose of describing their observations of flocks of birds. Both do so with a unique style that not only characterizes their sightings in depth, but persuades the reader to form a concept as well. Though their writing fashions are different, the differences are outweighed by similarities. Audubon and Dillard’s use of…

A Guiding Light In an essay by Annie Dillard called “An American Childhood”, Annie Dillard talks about her childhood growing up. She speaks fondly of her mother and describes the antics that her mother did. Mrs. Dillard relates those antics to the lessons taught to her and her siblings by their mother. These lessons that were taught and instilled in children by their parents is more important than it is thought to be. Positive parental guidance in a child’s life is beneficial in many ways. In…