An American Childhood Annie Dillard

Textual Analysis In the readings "An American Childhood" by Annie Dillard and "Always Running" by Luis Rodriguez, the authors and their essays are very similar, but at the same time different in their own respective ways. Both authors use an array of verbs to string sentences together as well as to keep the narrative moving. Both these authors create a fast-paced chase like sequence of sentences and verbs to keep their essays interesting as well as getting their perspective and points across. In Annie Dillard 's "An American Childhood" the author begins the story letting us readers get an understanding of the main character describing her almost as a tomboy, "Boys welcomed me at baseball, too, for I had, through enthusiastic practice, what was weirdly known as a boy 's arm."(Dillard P.g.2) She gets us involved in the story by letting us know she was the girl that hung out with the boys and did all the "boy" things that other girls weren 't invited or even wanted to do. She goes on to describe the boys she hung out with by saying, "Chickie McBride was there, a tough kid, and Billy Paul and Mackie Kean too, from across Reynolds, Where

the boys grew up dark and furious, grew up skinny, knowing, and skilled." (Dillard P.g.4) Her use of adjectives and verbs moves the sentence forward while also getting us to visualize these kids with the words "dark and furious" as well as "skinny, knowing, and skilled." "When a car came, we all popped it one." (Dillard P.g.5) "I started making an ice ball - a