The Chase
AP English 11
Vanessa Walker
March 13, 2015
The Chase
Annie Dillard, the author of “The Chase,” wrote about a memory from her childhood. In this story, she expresses the chase between an angry man, her friends, and herself. She describes how it was that chase which gave her such a thrill that would prove to be the most exciting and memorable point in her life. It was the ways in which she organized her sentences and incorporated certain literary devices that she would come to create a specific tone and portray her story in such a way as to influence the reader to catch the essence of her story. Her purpose as to writing this narrative is to lead the reader in a thrilling adventure, children running desperately for their lives, and while she conveys her story, she is also showing an unparalleled enthusiasm for life and skill at expressing it.
Throughout her writing, Dillard chose to use various types of syntax. She favored the use of long, detailed sentences as to create a vivid image and sense of the action in which she was describing. With this tool, she would run on with her sentences as to convey the sense of her constant motion in the chase. “We smashed through a gap in another hedge, entered a scruffy backyard and ran around its back porch and tight between houses to
Edgerton Avenue; we ran across Edgerton to an alley and to our own sliding woodpile to the
Halls’ front yard; he kept coming.” There was no stopping, for if they stopped, they would be caught and the “game” would be over. The long, runon sentences which she sculptes creates that constant motion of a chase, and the whole time in which she is writing her story, she is comparing the chase to a game. “We all played by the rules,” she said, and once the man caught up to her, she said, “There was no one around: a clearing in the grove, and we the
only players.” Through the entire chase, it was nothing but a game, an act for fun, and even as the man caught her and her friend,
Vanessa Walker
March 13, 2015
The Chase
Annie Dillard, the author of “The Chase,” wrote about a memory from her childhood. In this story, she expresses the chase between an angry man, her friends, and herself. She describes how it was that chase which gave her such a thrill that would prove to be the most exciting and memorable point in her life. It was the ways in which she organized her sentences and incorporated certain literary devices that she would come to create a specific tone and portray her story in such a way as to influence the reader to catch the essence of her story. Her purpose as to writing this narrative is to lead the reader in a thrilling adventure, children running desperately for their lives, and while she conveys her story, she is also showing an unparalleled enthusiasm for life and skill at expressing it.
Throughout her writing, Dillard chose to use various types of syntax. She favored the use of long, detailed sentences as to create a vivid image and sense of the action in which she was describing. With this tool, she would run on with her sentences as to convey the sense of her constant motion in the chase. “We smashed through a gap in another hedge, entered a scruffy backyard and ran around its back porch and tight between houses to
Edgerton Avenue; we ran across Edgerton to an alley and to our own sliding woodpile to the
Halls’ front yard; he kept coming.” There was no stopping, for if they stopped, they would be caught and the “game” would be over. The long, runon sentences which she sculptes creates that constant motion of a chase, and the whole time in which she is writing her story, she is comparing the chase to a game. “We all played by the rules,” she said, and once the man caught up to her, she said, “There was no one around: a clearing in the grove, and we the
only players.” Through the entire chase, it was nothing but a game, an act for fun, and even as the man caught her and her friend,