An American Childhood Essay, Research Paper

Based on Peter S. Hawkins’ Review

An American Childhood, by Annie Dillard, is a happy memoir of

Annie’s own life, a child of a well-to-do Pittsburgh family.

Dillard remembers much of her childhood and doesn’t hesitate to tell us

a bit of it. Author Flannery O’Conner once said, “any novelist who

could survive her childhood had enough to write about for a lifetime.”

This was most certainly the case for Dillard.

A person’s childhood is something that cannot be forgotten.

From grandparents telling their grandchildren about when they

were their age, to criminals pleading that their childhood caused them

to become evil, our first years are our most important. Annie Dillard

certainly remembered her childhood.

It is clear that what Dillard tells us about her life is true.

It is easy to classify Dillard as an avid reader as she

constantly mentions all her books. “As a child I read hoping to learn

everything, so I could be like my father,” Dillard said on page 214.

An American Childhood is extremely interesting and

entertaining. Having taken place in modern times, Dillard was

born in 1945 and the story begins when she is five, it is something we

can all follow and appreciate as Dillard climbs her way through

childhood.

We, the readers, watch as Annie emerges from a typical five

year old to the crazy, intelligent, independent young woman she

becomes. Each year is a footstep with new adventures and new

philosophies of the world around her. It is hard not to laugh as Annie

does such crazy acts as quitting church at age 16 and writing her

minister a fierce letter.

An American Childhood is not a book for a person without an

imagination. As a reader you must be willing to interpret what

Dillard says and fit into your own life and your own childhood. We can

all relate to her feelings and frustrations, and like Holden Caulfield

in Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Annie Dillard lets the reader

know how she feels about everything and everyone, no matter how that

may be.

An American Childhood is a great book that is guaranteed to

entertain even the pickiest of readers. It is amazing how

through her writing and her own memories, Annie Dillard can bring back

so many childhood memories of our own.