An American Childhood (Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Annie Dillard
- First Published: 1987
- Type of Work: Autobiography
- Time of Work: The 1950’s
- Setting: Pittsburgh
- Principal Characters: Annie Dillard, Frank Doak, Pam Lambert Doak
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography, Memoir
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Children, Family or family life, Self-discovery, Memory, Adolescence, Nature, Self, Authors or writers, Books, Upper classes, Youth, Reading, Intellect, Ponds
- Locales: Pittsburgh, PA
Form and Content
Writing about childhood and consciousness, Annie Dillard reveals in An American Childhood a pattern to her early life that clearly formed her as a writer. Growing up the eldest of three girls with loving, indulgent parents in comfortable, postwar Pittsburgh, she perceives herself as being able to feel alive from the inside, a quality she learned to recognize by vast amounts of reading. While those around her believed in Pittsburgh society, Dillard found alternative worlds through long hours spent reading all sorts of books. An American Childhood...
[The entire page is 2051 words long]
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