A mother's influence on her daughter is and can be a very inspirational experience. It can teach her how to be her own person, stand up for the underdog and keep people on their toes. I believe that Dillard's essay especially conveys this through the experiences the author had with her mother. I too had similar experiences with my mother.
             "Terwillger bunts one" (page 149) is a phrase that Dillard's mother picks up from a radio announcer talking about a baseball game. She uses her mothers reaction to this unusual sounding phrase to test pens and whispers it in her daughters ear in the middle of a prank as a spring board for the rest of her essay. It displays the most memorable things about her mothers personality; she is spontaneous, mischievous and a person that deviates from normalcy on a regular basis.
             The tone of Dillard's essay is generally a positive one; she obviously takes pleasure in describing her exceptional mother and is proud of the lessons her mother taught her, referring to her "energy and intelligence" (page 152), her "restless mental vigor" (page153), and her willingness to stand up for her opinions, no matter how unpopular.
             I can relate to this essay because my mother had a very strong, opinionated and at times a fun loving personality. She wouldn't hesitate at a chance to speak her mind whether she was in a good situation or bad. I can particularly remember an instance when I was twelve years old. My mother, my sisters and I were in a clothing store when we were approached by several clerks. My mother had been polite to all of them up until the point when the last clerk, a very young girl came up to my mother and asked her, "How are you doing today?" The response my mother gave was surprising to me. She answered in a very pleasant tone, "I would be just fine if all of you would just leave me alone and let me shop." Th...