Writing 121 Summary 1

An American Childhood Annie Dillard is a Pulitzer Prize winning author for non fiction writing. Dillard wrote about an autobiographic event that occurred in her childhood titled “An American Childhood.” The premise of the story is when seven-year old Dillard and a friend were chased relentlessly by an adult after they had thrown a snowball at a passing car. While in the process of reading Annie Dillard’s “An American Childhood,” I was interrupted numerous times, therefore I had to read “An American Childhood,” several times before I could understand the meaning of her story. I cannot relate very well to her quote by she was terrified at the time and yet she asserts she has “seldom been happier since” (22). Annie Dillard loved playing football with the boys, nothing the girls did could compare to the excitement of playing football. Where you can throw a great pass or receive a pass while someone is chasing you to bring you to the ground. The boys let Dillard play baseball with them since Dillard had a strong arm like the boys through practicing. On an early weekday morning after Christmas, many inches of new snow had fallen. Seven-year old Annie Dillard met the boys’ ages eight, nine, and ten in front of her house on Lloyd Street, where they had snow nearly to the top of their boots. The two oldest boys were Mikey and Peter Fahey who lived near Dillard on Llyod Street. The tough kid Chickie Mc Bride was there and Billy, Paul, and Mackie Kean too from across Reynolds Street were the boys grew up. The group of kids wandered around their neighborhood looking for action, when they had found it on Reynolds Street. It was a chilly day that wintery morning with clouds afloat in the sky. As the cars drove down Reynolds Street, you could hear them coming from afar, by the clanking of the chains on their tires. As the cars drove past, the chains on the tires left different grove patterns through the fresh snow. Dillard and the boys began making perfectly shaped

Cited: Dillard, Annie “An American Childhood” Reading Critically Writing Well. Rise B. Axelrod, Charles R Cooper, and Alison M Warriner. Boston: Bedford, 2011. 22-25. Print