SOURCE: "Fellow Rebels: Annie Dillard and Maxine Hong Kingston," in English Journal, Vol. 78, No. 8. December, 1889, pp. 50-67.

In the following essay, Bischoff compares Dillard's American Childhood with Maxine Hong Kingston's autobiography The Woman Warrior, noting that despite different backgrounds the two authors depict similar experiences.

For all their pseudosophisticated behavior and easy familiarity with high technology, today's high-school students continue to respond to and relish books about fictional young adults who, like themselves, struggle with generic teenage problems: rebellion against parental strictures, competition with siblings, the confines of school, fascination with and fear of the opposite sex, the looming necessity of momentous decisions about career choices and lifestyles. Traditionally, most such novels featured the adventures of young men (with the exception of the ubiquitous Nancy Drew); more recently, we have seen the skyrocketing popularity of such written-for-teens books as those of Judy Blume.

Certainly, such works have their...