Place and Environment Theme Analysis

At the end of An American Childhood, Dillard constructs a kind of thought experiment, asking the reader to imagine how personal memories are tied to a certain place—and how one must accept and trust that these vivid memories are not only beloved imaginative possessions, but also part of a larger world we all share. The sense of responsibility for the environment that stems from this argument is key to Dillard’s ethics, and in her memoir she describes how she came to develop such a view. But she also meditates on the difficulties of considering herself as anchored to a certain place, while also trying to appreciate the environment for its own merits—not just what it can do for her.

From an early age, Annie perceives the world around her in sophisticated and rapturous ways that can be understood as the seeds of a lifelong wonder at the natural world. She expresses a great deal of wonder about rocks, for instance, which seem inconspicuous but are—she marvels—some of the oldest objects in the world. Many of the book’s most lyrical passages deal with what Dillard calls the “healed rubble” of the earth’s surface, physical emblems that signal ancient history on an almost unimaginable scale. But Annie also attempts to manage and even control the vastness of the world around her through various strategies and modes, among them collection, categorization, and visual depiction. From collecting rocks and insects, to sitting for hours as she draws the contours of a shadow on the wall, Annie approaches her environment actively and tangibly. She renders palpable an interest that can otherwise be abstract and philosophical in order to understand how place can shape a person, as well as how people shape their own environments.

Annie comes to understand that Pittsburgh is a place where the natural and social come together; the book lingers over the city’s history, describing the wealth that came from its natural resources of coal and steel, as well as the industrialist Andrew Carnegie’s massive influence on the city’s landscape, as he used philanthropy to build parks and institutions like museums and libraries. As Annie explores and describes in detail the landscapes around her such as Frick Park and the Glen Arden steps, she comes to recognize how history is embedded within environment: Glen Arden, a wealthy neighborhood built on a hill, literally towers over the poorer, homelier neighborhoods laid out beneath it. The Polyphemus moth that Annie’s teacher lets loose to escape down the school driveway, in symbolizing Annie’s own quixotic determination to succeed and grow, can also be seen as part of the way she learns to relate nature and culture. This relationship is enacted through metaphor, but metaphor that works both ways: Dillard understands the natural world through her specific personified vision, while also coming to understand herself and the people around her by comparisons to the natural world.

Indeed, part of Dillard’s memoir is an attempt to understand America overall as a place of both natural beauty and social challenges. Dillard’s childhood was distinctly urban, while so much of the country is rural. Her childhood was also privileged, though surrounded by inequality. As a result, Dillard emphasizes that hers is one of many possible American childhoods (which is reflected in her use of “An” in the title of the book, rather than “The”). Annie does draw some generalities: she argues that Pittsburgh’s attitude of hard work, religious heritage, and focus on material wealth, for example, are all deeply American. But as she explores the connection between place and identity, she also wants to stress that there is no one-to-one relationship between the two, that both the natural world and individual character are so complex that they can work on each other in a myriad of ways. Indeed, throughout the memoir, Dillard shows how there is no hard-and-fast line to be drawn between the physical environment and the social world; they’re instead part of each other in ways that can be both harmful and potentially restorative. As she comes to know more about her own consciousness and develop her interior life, Annie also begins—though still, Dillard notes, in a limited sense—to turn outward to the world beyond her own mind.