Reading Response

Response Reading: An American Childhood My first reaction to An American childhood was a lot like my own memories when I was a child. I have vivid memories of throwing snowballs at cars driving by, playing football, and hanging with the boys. I related to Annie Dillard more than any author I have ever read. Dillard was not the average type of girl growing up and neither was I. I’m sure though that this relates to many children when growing up and not having a care in the world. She was much more adventurous in many ways along like me. Dillard is very creative with her writing and uses many phrases to describe objects or surroundings such as “a perfect iceball, from perfectly white snow, perfecting spherical, and squeezed perfecting translucent so no snow remained all the way through. She uses these descripted words to lead up to what is about to happen. I believe the point that the author is trying to get through to the readers is that whatever determination you have or putting your mind to something; you can do anything you want. Just as the man in the car did, he never stopped chasing the children. The man did not even take the time to shut his own door to the car. He shows how determined he is to catch the kids and I believe he is trying to prove a point to them because when he finally caught them he said “stupid kids” and then walked away proving his point. His point could have been anything but I believe he was just mad at them for hitting his car and wanted to scare off the kids so they would never do that again.
Dillard made it very clear how the kids knew this neighborhood through phrases like “He chased Mikey and me around the yellow house and up a backyard path we knew by heart: under a low tree, up a bank, through a hedge, down some snowy steps, and across the grocery stores delivery driveway.” She makes sure to let the reader know how well these kids know this neighborhood but yet the man is right behind them the whole way. She makes the reader