Free Sample Essays > Literature
Annie Dillard : The Chase
In Annie Dillard's "The Chase" she starts by detailing how she participated in sports in her neiborhood. She insists that no girl activities could compare to the thrill and excitement that she got of playing boys sports. In the wintertime there were not any sports that they could play, so they threw snowballs. On one morning doing their everyday winter ritual of throwing snowballs at cars they did not know it then but they had met their match. After hitting a man's car with snowballs they got into the chase of their lives. The man chasing them was not any ordinary adult that would just run for a block to scare the kids and then stop. He was determined for what the kids did not know and were not trying to find out. The man was persistent making every move the kids made, until he finally caught them. Annie Dillard was excited about the man catching her when any other kid would have been scared. The man just talked to them for a little while then let them go. Annie Dillard after claimed that if the man had cut their heads off right then, she would have died happy.
Some may think that Annie Dillard was over exaggerating. I am not one of those people, because I too know and understand the thrill of the chase. Some get an adrenaline rush as an adult by skydiving, bungee jumping or, maybe just to capture that same rush that they obtained as a child. This narrative captured the readers attention because of its drama and suspense, and detailed and play-by-play action, that's why I liked this narrative alot.
The way Annie Dillard keeps the reader on their feet always guessing is amazing. Through the entire chase she had me wondering were the kids going to get caught? And if they were what was going to happen to them? From the way she described how they hit the car to the way the man started chasing them to the way they were caught, I was left guessing and even making my own predictions of the outcome.
I liked the way the mood was set the morning of the chase. "It was cloudy cold. The cars' tires laid behind them on the snowy street a complex trail of beige chunks like crencellated castle walls." A narrative that is so detailed makes me get into the story, I feel like I am there and that is what I think writers strive for when they write. The story would not have been as effective for the reader if it was not for the play-by-play action. "He chased us silently, block after block. He chased us silently over picket fences, through thorny hedges, between houses, around garbage cans, and across streets." Because of these two writing patterns, the story was great.
Though I do not read very much because with most books [next page]