Benevolent Neglect in An American Childhood In An American Childhood, the autobiography of AnnieDillard, the issues of race and gender discrimination are explored from the perspective of a young girl. By looking at these societal issues from this fresh, new point of view, the reader is able to gain greater insight into the effect that authority s influence had on the youth of Dillard s generation. Set in suburban Pittsburgh in the nineteen fifties, the story of Dillard s childhood is one filled with subtle prejudice, outright bigotry, and unequal treatment ofthe boys and girls in her community. Although she was able to emerge from her hometown an educated, bright, and tolerant woman, she is still a product of her environment. Overcoming the obstacles set up for her simply because s heis a female shaped who she is today and determined how she would eventually look back on her childhood.
As a young girl in Pittsburgh, we see that, as a result of her community s failure to recognize her intelligence, self-worth, and physical prowess, Dillard is plagued with childhood feelings of inferiority and inadequacy compared to her male peers. When a child was born in Pittsburgh in the nineteen forties and fifties, his or her life was determined and predestined at that moment, and any variation of his or her expected course of action was to be approved by not only the child s parents but also the major authority figures of the community. And the expected course of action was the same for everyone. For the boys, it was that he would succeed in school, marry a girl from Pittsburgh, go to work and suppor this family, and… that they would inherit corporate Pittsburgh (92).
The Term Paper on Diversity in the Early Childhood Classroom
Diversity encompasses all of the differences that people possess as humans. It includes differences in race, language, gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity, nationality, abilities, exceptionalities, and geographical placement. Diversity consists of a quality that make individuals dissimilar and that brings to the classroom individuals existence experiences, abilities, talents, character ...
For the girls, it was that she would get through school, marry a boy from Pittsburgh, stay at home and raise the children and keep house, and be content with this lifestyle.
However, this was not the path that AnnieDillard, the girl wise beyond her years, wanted to take But not even she was aware of her will to go against authority yet. Dillard had a different mindset, and assumed that everyone thought the way she did. When she thought about the her community s boys futures, she imagined that, like her, they dreamed of… running away to sea, of curing cancer, of playing for the Pirates, of painting in Paris… (92).
It was then, her late teens, that Dillard realized that she did not want what she and her friends were headed for, or what her mother had to settle for; she had ambitions beyond house-keeping and Pittsburgh.
Yet as a young girl, Dillard was a victim of the attitude around her that the boys were superior beings to the girls. Evidence of this is embedded all throughout Dillard s childhood. Being a very athletic girl, Dillard was accepted by her male peers as a real competitive equal and therefore allowed to play football with them. But instead of looking at her physical abilities as proof that society was wrong about girls universal inferiority, she scorned the girls her age and their girly sports because…
nothing girls did could compare with it [football] (45).
Dillard, clearly confused, could turn her ability to identify with the girl son and off like this. For example, just after associating herself with the boys and their football games here, she can then reclaim her feminine side, completely detaching fromthe boys, and look at them as superiors by saying that… all along the boys had been in the process of becoming responsible members of an actual and moral world we small-minded and fast-talking girls had never heard of (91).
She belittles herself and her fellow female peers by calling them small-minded and fast-talking, with no idea that thesis not the truth, but the false impression that society has caused by idolizing the boys and not appreciating the girls. At one point, Dillard makes a reference to how thegirls looked at the boys in school. It seems that even if boy had made a statement and been dead wrong, the girls would have disregarded the truth to accept the new truth spoken by the boy. Dillard confessed: We girls knew precisely the limits of the possible and the thinkable, we thought, and were permanently astonished to learn that we were wrong. Whose idea of sophistication was it, after all, to pay attention in Latin class It was the boys idea. Everything was.
The Coursework on Single Sex Girls Boys Schools
Statistically, in recent years girls have out-graded boys in most examinations. Girls have been consistently beating boys at GCSE, A-Level and, now even degree level. This is often put down to girls' having longer concentration spans than boys. I agree that this may indeed contribute to girls out-achieving boys. I think this because, obviously, the longer someone concentrates, the more they are ...
Everything they thought of was bold and original like that (185).
This illustrates how disillusioned the girls were tothe reality of the boys actual level of intelligence and superiority because of society s influence. Everyone in the community, from the parents to the dance instructors to the church officials, entirely neglected to acknowledge, validate, and appreciate thegirls self-worth and value as members of society. As a result, the girls were left with feelings of inadequacy that were reflected in their attitude toward the boys. To thegirls, nothing the boys did seemed wrong, and this attitude applied to all aspects of the boys: their appearance, their intellect, their athletic ability. The boys were perfect, as Dillard notes in the passage, …
for all practical purposes, no longer comical beasts now but walking gods who conferred divine power with their least glances (90).
It is no wonder that the girls would, typically, freely submit themselves to the predetermined life that the generations before them had ensured when they believe this about the boys. This unhealthy, unfair attitude caused by society contributes to the absence of Dillard s and the other girls adolescent self-esteem, and in effect, it also signifies the end of any hope to live lives of their own choosing for the future. Fortunately for Dillard, but sadly for the other girls, she was one of the few who recognized this and was able to leave behind the prejudices of her community and find a life where she could do what she truly wanted.
