An American Childhood - Annie Dillard

WORKSHOP

Narrating the Story

Whether focusing on a single event or a person, writers nearly always tell a story or several brief stories called anecdotes.  A well-told story draws readers in by arousing their curiosity and often keeps them reading by building suspense or drama, making them want to know what will happen next. Storytellers use a variety of techniques to dramatize events. One way is to speed up the action and heighten the tension. 

This activity will help you see how Dillard uses active verbs and other verb forms to make her story dramatic.

USING ACTIVE VERBS

VERB FORMS

Analyze

1. Reread paragraphs 12 and 13 (lines 72- 89), underlining as many verbs as you can.  What can you get out of all the verbs, why so many? What is the sensation they provoke as you read?Write several sentences explaining what you have learned about Dillard's use of verbs and verbals to represent action and to make her narrative dramatic. Use examples from paragraphs 12 and 13 to support your explanation.

Presenting People

Often, one or two specific details about the way a person looks, dresses, talks, or acts will be sufficient to give readers a vivid impression of the person.

Look at paragraph 4. How does Dillard describe the boys. Notice that she gives each boy a brief descriptive tag. Write the tags. Create a visual image of the characters.
These characterizations or evaluations contribute not only to the impression we get of each boy but also to our understanding of his significance in the writer's life.

Fabiola A. 7C

Miguel A. 7C

Analyze

2. Reread paragraphs 10, 16, 18 and 21 describe how the man looks and sounds. 

Based on your analysis, write several sentences examining Dillard's use of descriptive details and characterizations to present the man. Use examples .

Describing Places 

Writers make a remembered place vivid by naming memorable objects they want readers to see there and by detailing these objects. For examples of naming and detailing, look at paragraph 3, where Dillard describes what it looked like on that particular morning after Christ­ mas. Notice that Dillard uses naming to point out the snow, Reynolds Street, and the cars. She also adds details that give information about these objects: "six inches of new snow," "trafficked Reynolds Street," "cars traveled ... slowly and evenly."

To make her description evocative as well as vivid, Dillard adds a third describing strategy: comparing. In paragraph 5, for example, she describes the trail made by car tires in the snow as being "like crenellated castle walls." The word like makes the comparison explicit and identifies it as a simile. Dillard also uses implicit comparisons, called metaphors, such as when she calls the cars "tar­ gets all but wrapped in red ribbons, cream puffs" (paragraph 3).

Analyze
3. Examine how Dillard uses naming and detailing to describe the "perfect ice­ ball" in paragraph 6. What does she name it, and what details does she add to specify the qualities that make an iceball "perfect"? 

Conveying the Autobiographical Significance

Autobiographers convey the significance of an event or a person in two ways: by showing and by telling. Through your analyses of how Dillard narrates the story, presents people, and describes places, you have looked at some of the ways she shows the event's significance. This activity focuses on what Dillard tells.

"You thought up a new strategy for every play and whispered it to the others. You went out for a pass, fooling everyone:' 

To determine the autobiographical significance of the remembered event or person, then, readers need to pay attention to what Dillard tells about the significance-both her remembered feelings and thoughts and her present perspective. 

Analyze

4. Explain what have you learned from Dillard's autobiography and the importance of this event in her life.