annie dillard from an american childhood

Mother DoakĪnnie's mother is very much like all of the other upper class mothers in Pittsburgh. She is becoming quite a strident young woman, without understanding the responsibility that goes along with standing on her own. She loves getting an education but she no longer feels comfortable being controlled by everyone around her.

This behavior is odd because her academic record does not decline, and she doesn't let her grades suffer. She is suspended from school for smoking, and she crashes a car whilst participating in an illegal drag race.

They, in turn, cannot understand why she wants to socialize outside of the carefully selected peer group her friends seem happy with.Īs a senior in high school, Annie becomes very rebellious, pushing her boundaries way beyond the limit. She finds the insular nature of her life extremely frustrating and cannot understand why her parents want to spend so much of their time with the same people. As Annie Dillard looks back at her younger self, she cannot help but agree with them.Īs a teen, Annie became interested in the world outside of her family's enclave of Presbyterian middle classness, particularly in the plight of the poor. She is intelligent and well-read but this makes her rather cocky, and her family think of her as a Little Miss Know It All. She is also crashingly self-absorbed sometimes, and she feels that once she has formed an opinion about something, then that is the way that it is. She loves sciences, yet spends more time reading literature than reference books. Young Annie Doak is a precocious child with an interest in absolutely everything. Like most people, Dillard cringes, laughs at and has a great deal of frustration with her teenage self. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.Īnnie Doak, the book's protagonist, and Annie Dillard, the author of the memoir, are one and the same person, but that doesn't mean that they are indistinguishable after all, which of us is really the same person at almost fifty years old that we were at ten, thirteen, eighteen? Annie Doak is the person experiencing growing up in PIttsburgh as the memoir unfolds Annie Dillard, now going by her married name, is the person telling the story of that childhood.

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Annie dillard from an american childhood