At a first glance Annie Dillard's The Chase is an ordinary tale of children being children. The short story takes place in a suburban neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the heart of winter. The narrarator, Annie Dillard, attempts to convey a childhood story through the use of simple diction and perfect recollection of the events that occurred.
One of the most important aspects of any piece of literature is the theme. The theme is a lesson or other bit of useful information the author would like to portray to her reader's. Annie Dillard's theme from The Chase can be seen as giving your all and never giving up regardless of what we do in life. The theme is easily seen in her many examples of learning football "It was all or nothing. If you hesitated in fear you would miss and get hurt" Dillard learned to approach football with an all or nothing attitude (Dillard 20). The tone is Dillard's excerpt also aids in painting the theme for reader's. The passage opens with an easy going attitude "some boys taught me to play football. This was a fine sport," and later turns grave "All of a sudden we were running for our lives"(Dillard 20,22). The two tone's while different accent the same theme of putting in one hundred percent effort into anything attempted.
After the innocent description of Dillard and her five friends playing football the passage takes a turn for the more serious. Dillard and her friends eagerly await a car to pelt with snowballs one winter day. As soon as they get their chance they hurl the ice at " the black Buick"(Dillard 21). Unknowingly the children meet a candidate for a chase. Dillard's theme is again seen during the initial "chase" of the story. The mystery man pursues the children "silently over picket fences, through thorny hedges, between houses, and around garbage cans"(Dillard 22). Both parties in the chase exhibit perseverance and determination, the children to escape an inevitable scolding and the man to get his point across to the children. due to Dillard's theme of giving every ounce of effort the man finally catches the children and issues them a typical scolding. The two situations of giving all of our effort into something adequately develops the theme in Dillard's The Chase.
- Alex Simpson
