Response to: Annie Dillard: “The Chase”

Dillard begins her essay by explaining her relationship with boys as a child. She speaks of her cunning tactics in football and baseball. Talk of these sports, and their inability to be played throughout the winter, lead into a detailed anecdote of Dillard and her friends in the winter. One day, while continuing their routine of throwing snow balls at cars, Dillard and the boys she hung out with throw a snowball at the windshield of a black Buick. In contrast to an adults "normal" reaction to this childhood prank; "the car, pulled over and stopped." A man, dressed in "city-clothes: a suit and tie, street shoes", got out of the car and began a very extensive chase after the six children. Upon catching up to the kids, the young man proceeded to "perfunctorily" lecture the "stupid kids" on the error of their ways. Regarding the maze Dillard and friends caused the businessman to run, Dillard remarks, "I don't know how he found his way back to his car."

        Growing up with two older brothers has a very large impact on your childhood. When I was a young girl, I was the biggest tom-boy to ever live. I spent my days aspiring to be like my older brothers, playing in the mud and catching tadpoles. Every year, for my birthday, my aunt would give me a Barbie doll, and every year, I would ask my mom "Why?" "Why does Aunt Mary give me these when I never play with them?" It wasn't until I started school that I understood that young girls were expected to WANT to play with dolls. Although, this discovery did not change the way I acted nor the way my mother encouraged me in my playtime habits. At school, I would always befriend the boys playing basketball on the playground, and actively ignore the young girls practicing their older sisters' cheer-leading moves. My mom will tell the story of how she once waited months for me to get on to the waiting list of a highly regarded dance school, only to have me throw a fit about not wanting to go and insist upon joining a soccer team instead. All these anecdotes are highly ironic to the fact that I grew to love music and dance as a teen and soon regretted my six-year-old decision to forego the dance training. Although, I have no honest story of being chased by a man in a business suit, I can connect to Anne Dillard in this other way. From her extensive descriptions of beating her male friends at what is assumed to be tackle football and baseball, I can see a small bit of my young self in her writing. This was the part of the essay that stood out so strongly to me. I feel as though Anne performed the act of throwing the snowball as a form of impressing her daring male peers. As a child, I always felt as though I needed to act like and compete with the boys I befriended as a way to state my value to the group. This may also stem from a bit of sibling rivalry and being the baby of the family, who knows?

        I am most interested to know how this passage connects to Anne Dillard's life as an adult. In contrast to E.B. White's essays, Dillard gives primarily the facts and ceases to explain the event's later impacts on her life. I would like to ask her why she felt the need to write this little piece of her history down and share it with others. I am also curious to know what she now, as an adult, thinks of her actions as a child. In all honesty, I would like to have more details about the businessman. Did he go to the children's parents about their prank and what all did his lecture to the children entail?