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Analysis Of Joan Didion's The Santa Ana Wind

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The Santa Ana Winds Analysis There are moments when mother nature does something that may be inexplicable to mankind. There is not always an explanation for why things happen, sometimes they just do. Joan Didion tries to describe the instinct that people have that tells them the Santa Ana winds are the reason for the change in the climate and within one another.
Didion sets a dreadful tone to her essay by associating a set of words that contain unhappy connotations, with the wind. She begins the essay by setting up an unpleasing mood for the audience. She includes context such as “uneasy, unnatural, and tension.” These few words hint at the unease that should be felt when reading her essay, in order to genuinely comprehend the effects the Santa Ana Winds will have in the local area of Los Angeles. As she continues to describe the setting she emphasizes the importance of the wind. She is able to guide her readers to the significance the wind will have not only on their environment but on …show more content…

Although she does write about all the logistical facts that occur within the city while the winds are passing through, she conveys her ideas in an effective method. As she is speaking scientifically she makes it easy to realize that Didion’s voice is still in this part of her essay. Her tone is never lost and therefore when she ends her excerpt with “One cannot get much more mechanistic than that,” she is referring back to her idea that the winds cause something in human nature to change, and that is the most valid explanation there is to offer.
Didion’s powerful use of negative diction, vivid imagery, and simple logical all helped her express her motives for writing about the Santa Ana Winds which is because she feels that they are essentially the reason for change not only around us but within

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