The Chase
In the narrative “The Chase,” Annie Dillard describes an exciting encounter that brought her great delight in which she will hardly experience again. She uses a series of figurative languages and selection of details to incorporate her tone into the story and portray the passions of but not limited to children. The story starts off with descriptions of the game football and proceeds to her encounter with a stranger while playing with her friends. As a result of throwing snowballs at his car window, the man got out of his car and chases them. This was the beginning of the chase which will change her perception of adults. In this recollection, Annie uses a first-person narrative to reveal the perspective of a seven-year-old child and include her thoughts on children. The tone is informal due to her straightforward words and thoughts, resulting in addressing the audience directly and creating a child persona. This was accomplished by writing brief and succinct sentences in the whole story and repetitions of the word “you” in the introduction, “You thought up a new strategy for every play and whispered it to the others. You went out for a pass, fooling everyone…” (¶1). Throughout the story, her tone remains enthusiastic and nostalgic as she recounts the events of the chase, “In winter, in the snow, there was neither baseball nor football, so the boys and I threw snowballs at passing cars. I got in trouble throwing snowballs, and have seldom been happier since” (¶2). This is due to her intended audience, the adults, as she reminisces about her childhood adventures. Her intention is to remind adults of the passion and determination they had when they were little and lost as they grew up. During the chase, the author uses various literary devices to develop a fast pace and create a clear visual of the events. She uses a series of prepositions, “under a low tree, up a bank, through a hedge, down some…” (¶12), implying she was constantly moving and running through the