An American Childhoodby Annie DillardTHE LITERARY WORK An autobiography set in Pittsburgh in the 1950s-60s, published in 1987.SYNOPSIS A portrait of Annie Dillard as a young girl, An American Childhood recreates family life and the culture of the American Midwest.Events in History at the Time of the AutobiographyThe Autobiography in FocusFor More Information Source for information on An. Annie Dillard (Annie Doak) While Annie Dillard (the narrator and author of the book) and young Annie Doak, the book’s protagonist, are the same person, it’s important to note that there is a clear difference between their presences on read analysis of Annie Dillard (Annie Doak). The story is about a troubling event that the author, Annie Dillard, faced when she was a child. She was seven years old when the event took place in a cold weekday winter morning after Christmas. At that morning a six inch of snow had fallen and she was with her friends, Billy, Chickie, as well as Mackie. Unlike other memoirs, An American Childhood flouts the traditional coming of age trope. Instead, Dillard focuses on awakening from the self absorption of early childhood and entrance into the greater world. In a sense, she chronicles the Lacanian moment of self awareness, and does so lyrically and deftly. AN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD by Annie Dillard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 23, 1987 Dillard's headlong immersion into the mysteries of the natural world—from bedrocks to the heavens, and flora and fauna (from amoebas to us)—places this childhood memoir of life with a companionable family in Pittsburgh's elite enclave in the 50's and 60's.
Genre
Setting and Context
Pittsburgh, during the time of Annie's childhood, between the end of World War Two and the start of the Cold War
Narrator and Point of View
Annie is the narrator and the book is written from her point of view.
Tone and Mood
Optimistic and hopeful; rebellious as the book continues and Annie becomes a teen.
Protagonist and Antagonist
There is no specific antagonist identified in the book, but like all teen protagonists, Annie as the protagonist finds the rules of the church, school and her parents confining and largely antagonistic.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in the memoir is between Annie and the figures of authority in her life as she becomes an older teen and begins to rebel against what she finds confining rules and expectations.
Climax
Annie gets into quite a lot of trouble during her senior year in high school but nevertheless manages to get accepted into Hollins College in Virginia, leaving home for the first time.
Foreshadowing
Usb 2 for mac. Annie's growing awareness of the world around her and her great need to explore it foreshadows the more rebellious years of her life when she does not want to be controlled or confined by her church, her school or her parents.
Understatement
Annie's rebelliousness is a surprise to her parents. This understates their feelings because it must have been an enormous shock to them to see their previously studious and well mannered daughter get kicked out of school for smoking, and crash a car in a drag race.
Allusions
Anne alludes to the palpable fear in the air during the early years of the Cold War and the threat that was perceived by everyone, not just by the government. This is demonstrated by her referencing the underground nuclear shelter that she believed comfortable enough to live in for a while in the case of a nuclear attack.
Imagery
An American Childhood Annie Dillard Themes
The descriptions of the nuclear shelter creates the image of not only a physical shelter but also of a mental one; by constructing something that would keep them safe the citizens of Pittsburgh were able to rest a little easier about the impending nuclear threat from the Communist countries of Europe, and Cuba. The imagery also enables the reader not only to imaging what the shelter itself actually looked like but also to imagine the heightened feelings of fear and panic that was spreading.
Paradox
An American Childhood By Annie Dillard Plot
Annie's family, like most others in their area, selected where they live specifically because it is predominantly Presbyterian and middle class, and therefore they would be able to socialize with the same group of people and people whom they feel to be the same as them. Annie hates to feel penned in by having to see the same people at every activity that she does and so what makes somewhere comfortable for her parents has the opposite affect on Annie.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between Annie becoming a young woman and her growing rebelliousness against the rules she has followed all her life growing up.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Personification
N/A