The Use of Literary Elements
The use of literary elements to make the narratives in Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood and Luis Rodriguez’s Always Running dramatic is evidently different, with Dillard preferring to use descriptions of the character’s actions in the environment and Rodriguez opting to use the environment itself to introduce drama to the scene.
However, an analysis of Rodriguez’s work reveals a dependence on dialogue as a means of situating the characters while also introducing the reader to the reality depicted in the book. On the other hand, Dillard relies on the internal dialogue and thoughts of the characters themselves to situate the reader in the scene. This provides a more introspective angle to the narrative, with dialogue serving as an instrument for showing the immediacy of change in the characters’ immediate scenery by breaking up the flow of her informatively introspective approach to dramatizing the narrative.
Similarities in Style
The two authors display a number of similarities in their styles, first of which is the way through which they use the past tense to relay the passage of time in their essays. As depictions of their experiences growing up, this serves to indicate to the reader that the text is in itself a collection of memories as told from the perspective of the person that lived and perceived it all.
Another similarity is the authors’ use of blocked paragraphs to indicate ideas that the reader should perceive as connected and similarly important. In this manner, both Dillard and Rodriguez help to guide the reader through the text without presenting a wall of text from which the reader would have to make a self-determination regarding the flow of ideas as well as their prominence in either book.
Differences in Presentation and Formatting
Even with these similarities, both authors have a unique way of presenting and formatting the content in their respective works. For Rodriguez, the extensive use of rapid-fire dialogue between the characters lends a sense of flow and fluency to the individual portrayals and in doing so, allows the reader to perceive the personalities of these characters as unique and differentiable. This also follows the way that he separates the conversation into individual paragraphs for each character’s utterances.
On the other hand, Dillard’s introspective style also means that she presents the content in blocked paragraphs that also include quoted utterances from the characters. This differs from Rodriguez’s approach and lends a continuity to ideas that the reader can otherwise perceive as disconnected if relayed in the dialogic style that Rodriguez prioritizes as the key stylistic instrument for relaying content.
Differences in Verb Use
A side-by-side comparison of the two books reveals that the authors also have different approaches to verb use. Dillard places a reliance on the passive tense of the verbs that she uses in An American Childhood, such as when she says “…I was cherishing my excitement…” or “…we had been breaking new snow all morning…” (Dillard para 9-11). In comparison, Rodriguez situates his characters’ actions firmly in the past and as a result, relies on the action tense of verbs when telling his story. “…we stopped in front of a chain link fence…” and “…a searchlight sprayed across the school yard…” are just some examples of how he uses verbs to show characters’ actions as well as relay the role of inanimate objects in the environment (Rodriguez para 3).
This results in a more interactive style that introduces ideas to the reader immediately the character interacts with them rather than when they become relevant to the story.
Differences in Sentence Length
As highlighted, Rodriguez uses a style that is more effective in relaying a sense of immediacy and importance to the characters’ actions as well as to various environmental influences acting on their portrayal in the book. As a result, the sentences always seek to further the story by emphasizing the character’s actions and reactions to his or her experiences while interacting with other characters and the environment. In contrast, Dillard’s introspective style also means that action occurs in a more gradual manner and only breaks up to introduce dialogic elements that have the potential to affect the character’s state. In this sense, Dillard’s approach only speeds up the action when necessary while Rodriguez favors quick action and only slows it down if the need arises.
The stylistic use of sentence length by the two authors is another factor that relays the difference in their approaches to informing their readers. For Rodriguez, a reliance on quick actions also means that he favors shorter sentences that lend a sense of immediacy to the characters’ actions and thereby only contain as much information as the character seeks to relay to others in a particular scene. Comparatively, Dillard favors longer sentences that pack more information and thereby places them in paragraphed groups depending on how related the ideas contained in these sentences really are. This helps to make Dillard’s work more reminiscent of essays while the approach that Rodriguez uses creates a fine blend between dialogic and block-dependent means for relaying information about the characters and their environment to the reader.
Works Cited
Dillard, Annie. An American Childhood. Canongate Books, 2016.
Rodriguez, Luis J. Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in LA. Simon and Schuster, 2005.
