Food For Thought:
On Annie Dillard’s “An American Childhood”
Like Dillard, you could write about a time when an adult did something entirely unexpected during
your childhood, an action that seemed dangerous or threatening to you, or something humorous,
kind, or generous. List two or three of these occasions.
Consider unpredictable actions of adults in your immediate or extended family, adults you had come
to know outside your family, and strangers. As you consider these possible topics, think about your
purpose and audience: What would you want your instructor and classmates to learn about you from
reading about this particular event?
On Trey Ellis’ “When the Walls Came Tumbling Down”
In one sense, the event Ellis writes about was tragic: The news his father broke to him was of an
illness that led to his death a few short months later. Ellis tells us, however, that the event had an
unexpectedly positive side effect: It gave him an opportunity to help his dad and get to know him in a
new way. For your own essay, you, too, might consider writing about an event that had an
unexpectedly positive outcome. Ellis’s essay also suggests the possibility of writing about an event
that challenged your preconceptions or prejudices. Ellis tells us that learning about his father’s
sexual orientation challenged his “own juvenile homophobia” (par. 3). As you consider these
possible topics, think about your purpose and audience. What would you want your instructor and
classmates to learn about you from reading about this particular event?
On Saira Shah’s “Longing to Belong”
Like Shah, consider writing about an event that you were looking forward to but that turned out
differently than you had expected—perhaps turning out to be a dreadful disappointment, a delightful
surprise, or, more likely, a combination of disappointment and delight. Alternatively, you might write
about a time when you had thought you wanted something but then realized your desires were more
complicated; a time when you were trying to fit in and discovered something unexpected about
yourself or about the group to which you wanted to belong; or a time when you decided not to try to
conform to someone’s expectations, but to rebel and go your own way. If, like Shah’s, your
experience involves a clash of cultures, you might write about that aspect of your experience, how it
has affected you, and what you have learned from the experience.
As you consider these possible topics, think about your purpose and audience.
What would you want your instructor and classmates to learn about you from reading about this
particular event?
Using the Web to Find and Explore an Event
Exploring Web sites where people write about their life experiences might inspire you by triggering
memories of similar events in your own life. Moreover, the Internet provides a rich repository of
cultural and historical information, including photographs and music, which you might be able to use
to prime your memory and create a richly detailed, multimedia text for your readers.
Here are some suggestions:
� Investigate Web sites such as Citystories.com, StoryPreservation.com, and
MemoryArchive.org where people post brief stories about their lives.
� Search sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Blogspot featuring people you are writing about, as
well as sites of friends, family members, or others who have been important to you.
� Look for sites related to places or activities—such as neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, sports
events, or films—that you associate with the event you are writing about.
� Take a look at narrative history sites such as Survivors’ Stories, Katrina Stories, and Sixties
Personal Narrative Project to see what people who experienced these events are writing about.
Make notes of any ideas, memories, or insights suggested by your online research, and download
any visuals you might include in your essay, being sure to get the information necessary to cite any
online sources. (See pp. 774-76 for the MLA citation format for electronic sources.)
Testing Your Choice:
After you’ve made some attempts to construct the story, you should pause to decide whether you
recall enough of the event and care enough about it to write about it.
Test your choice using the following questions.
� Will I be able to reconstruct enough of the story and describe the place and people with enough
vivid detail to make my story dramatic and create a dominant impression?
� Do I feel drawn toward understanding what this event meant to me then and means to me now?
You need not yet understand the significance, but you should feel compelled to explore it—keeping
in mind that you will decide what you want to disclose in your essay.
� Do I feel comfortable writing about this event for my instructor and classmates?
You are not writing a diary entry. Rather, you are writing a public document—a fact that may give
you pause, but may also inspire you.
If you lose confidence in your choice, return to the list of possible events you made, and choose
another event.
Collaborative Activity
Get together with two or three other students to try out your story. Your classmates’ reactions will
help you determine whether you have chosen an event you can present in an interesting way.
Storytellers: Take turns telling your story briefly, describing the place and key people.
Try to pique your listeners’ curiosity and build suspense.
Listeners: Briefly tell each storyteller what you found most intriguing about the story.
For example, consider these questions:
� Were you eager to know how the story would turn out?
� Was there a clear conflict that seemed important enough to write about?
� Were you able to identify with the storyteller?
� Could you understand why the event was significant for the storyteller?