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John Sanchez
Lori Brown
English IV 5th Period
17 September 2009
Compare/Contrast: Dillard and Rodriguez

Dillard’s “An American Childhood” and Rodriquez’s “Always Running” both on the

outside seem to be autobiographies about an experience when both writers were being chased.

Both writers include cultural influences on the setting to make it more clear what life was really

like for them in their autobiographies. They also both dramatize the chase to make the story more

exciting. Yet, the two writers differ in what cultural setting their autobiographies are in and what

style they use to dramatize the chase.

While these two autobiographies are rooted in culture, they both differ in what exact

cultures the autobiographies nestle in. Rodriguez writes about life in a prominently poor Mexican

neighborhood. He describes many of its various aspects such as the “people … on the metal

chairs … and beer” (paragraph 1), the “stucco and wood-frame homes” (paragraph 2), and the

“neighborhood consisting mostly of Mexicans” (Paragraph 2). This poverty enriched land is such

a clash when viewed against the presumably middle class white community that Dillard

describes. Her description of the suburbs in Pittsburgh seem less poverty stricken such as with

them leaving from houses (paragraph 4) and the clothes that the man that chases them wears

(paragraph 10). She attaches no greatness or inadequacy about the homes which makes them just

regular homes. She also addresses the man’s clothes that’s chases them as city clothes consisting

of a suit and tire, which would stick out in Rodriguez’s autobiography.

These two writers, though, don’t differentiate so much about the writing techniques that

they employ on the chasing scenes. Dillard uses short choppy sentences as well as Rodriguez

when they both want to push the action forward. Such as like when Dillard in paragraph 11 with
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“Wordless, we split up. We were on our turf, we could lose ourselves…” The shorter breaks in-

between punctuation creates a faster paced tempo and quick beat to the chase. Rodriguez does

the same thing like in paragraph 26, “It never stopped, this running. We were constant prey, and

the hunters soon became big blurs…” He too includes those lost of breaks and puts shorter words

to make the story flow more quickly. The two writers also employ another technique with the

chase to dramatize it by adding differently structured sentences to emphasize different

techniques. Dillard does this in paragraph 13 with her describing how the man “knew what I

thought only children who trained at football knew: that you have to fling yourself at what

you’re doing…” This longer sentence helps emphasize the theme that Dillard is pushing about

perseverance and passion. Rodriguez also emphasizes a certain topic, but instead, he does so by

making the sentences even quicker and he blurs the words together by making them all repeat

with almost the same style of speaking. He does this in paragraph 26 when he describes how the

police chasing them become “big blurs: the police, the gang, the junkies, the dudes on Garvey

Boulevard who took our money, all smudged into one.” This helps Rodriguez help emphasize his

theme on how repressed Mexican people are.

While both writers may seem both the same, and seem to talk about the same scenario of

kids being chased, Dillard puts hers in a more joyful community, while Rodriquez chooses the

culture of the repressed Mexicans in poverty stricken neighborhoods to put his in. Yet, they seem

more in tune on writing techniques to dramatize the chase, even though Dillard differentiates by

making her theme more visible by lengthening her sentences, while Rodriguez blurs his sentence

to emphasize the theme. Overall, Dillard and Rodriguez are two different writers talking about

two different settings with two different themes.