Annie Dillard The Chase Summary

I embarked upon this journey, my first ever reading of author Annie Dillard, with her essay The Chase. I did not study this story, initially, in search of any deeper meaning; I merely relaxed, freed myself from thought and allowed my mind to be taken on, what I felt to be, one incredible ride. Ms. Dillard opens the saga with her own childhood memories of playing football with the neighborhood boys; in a vivid recollection of the sense of freedom and air of nobility acquired thru the act of whole heartedly committing oneself to this physically demanding game, the values and mindset of the author, as a child, are clearly revealed. Quite admirable indeed, I have always thought, are those who possess a trait for this level and quality of commitment;…show more content…
Further study and analysis of this short, seemingly simple, essay telling of a neighborhood adventure, reveal things of a nature far deeper than the original glee, though no less pure in thought. From the storys beginning, with one girls view on what it is to play game of football, Ms. Dillard, at once, sets the stage for a recollection of spectacular thrill and the unveiling of an insightful, inspiring philosophy on what it is to be alive and to truly live. In a sense, the essay also mourns the loss of passion, a trait so common and so dear to children; a trait that is vanished, gone, in most cases, sometime long before they reach adulthood, lost, while no one is looking somewhere in the transition. So this was adolescence. Is this how the people around me had died on their feet The author, as a child, noticed that the adults all drove by unaffected, disinterested, even as events of escalating drama took place just outside the windows of their cars, all of them it seemed, had lost this passion, except for one. When the childrens lives intersected, that winter day, with the life of the storys still nameless stranger there were revelations the extent of which were so astounding that,…show more content…
Wow, upon hearing this I had to read it again. I have discovered a number of possible reasons as to why such a negative reaction, to such a positive story, might be. All of which I think are silly and none of which I give any validity to. Though, I will cite these possible reasons as I understand them to be. I will be adding, when I deem necessary, my own bias opinions and anti-feminist rhetoric. First among the lesser, pettier, reasons Ive found are a couple of Ms. Dillards quotes on sports. She says of football: Nothing girls did could compare with it. And of baseball she explains that it was only through enthusiastic practice that she had developed A boys arm. Of these notions, to the feminists, allow me to say that the first quote is the opiniona thing to which everyone is entitledof a girl who found exquisite joy in an activity that was created by men and played by boys. Boys who, quite willingly, allowed her to play with them; had she rather been knitting, this too, Im sure, would have been just fine with the boys. And of the Boys arm I must mention that, quite obviously, men and women are different, separated by millions of years of gender evolution; yet, they are perfectly built to coexist and to each play a role in the furthering of the species to which they belong. Boys arm is a figure of speech that comes from one of the obvious physical traits of these many gender differences. This does not mean that a major league womens softball