Analyze 
Use the basic features.

A Well-Told Story: Constructing an Action Sequence

Printed Page 20

For more on narrative action, see Chapter 14.

Throughout the excerpt from An American Childhood, Dillard combines action verbs and prepositional phrases to create compelling action sequences. Consider this example:

Action verb

Prepositional phrases

He chased Mikey and me around the yellow house and up a backyard path we knew by heart: under a low tree, up a bank, through a hedge, down some snowy steps, and across the grocery store’s delivery driveway. (par. 12)

ANALYZE & WRITE

Write a paragraph analyzing Dillard’s action sequences in “An American Childhood”:

  1. Skim paragraphs 11–13, circling the action verbs and underlining the prepositional phrases.
  2. Think about how this series of prepositional phrases contributes to the effectiveness of the scene.

    Question

    undefined. ANALYZE & WRITE