This example of her personal life creates the visual of the neighbors being animalistic and continues the construction of the effects of the storm. The sentence about the neighbors is strategically structured as a loose and complex one, just to exaggerate the effects on the fellow Los Angeles citizens. Adding her own personal example of the effects, helps capture the connection between the audience, their emotions, the writing, as well as the
The authors, Linda Thomas and Joan Didion intersect and diverge from one another in the passages. They use moves in their writing in order to shape their message about the winds. Both “Brush Fire” and “The Santa Ana” have different purposes for the readers. The purpose of “Brush Fire” is to entertain the audience and the purpose of “the Santa Ana” is to inform the readers of the behavior and the mood of Santa Ana during these times. The authors use rhetorical devices like tone and
This embodies not only the wind but also the urban setting as a location that will make you feel very vulnerable and unsafe. By the end of this selection the author finally speaks of Lutie directly and explains her specific thoughts towards the city. For instance, “cold fingers of the wind” personifies this city as very overwhelming and as if Lutie would much rather be anywhere
Review on Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem In her memoir titled, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion includes a collection of essays that focus on her experiences in California during the 1960’s. By combining true historical facts, with a keen eye for gothic imagery, Didion narrates a felt experience from the perspective of a participant and an observer— calling into question the values of her own generation, while simultaneously embracing them in order to create a palpable narrative. Part One, Life Styles in the Golden Land provides a both a nostalgic and geographic origin story for the following chapters. The collection opens with the essay, Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream, which tells the tale of Lucille Miller and her
With the setting and details laid out in front of the reader, Didion performs a tone shift, about midway through her essay. What once was an ominous, eerie description of human behavior during extreme weather, transforms into a methodical, scientific recount of the foehn winds and their occurrences over time throughout history. Didion’s now practical, instructive tone addresses the reasoning behind the events partaking in Los Angeles, with diction such as “malevolent”, “leeward”, “mitigating”, and “mechanistic”. Lastly, Joan Didion’s essay “Los Angeles Notebook” has a gratuitous effect on the reader. The entire purpose of the essay is to evaluate and deconstruct the effect of the environment on the human’s conscious and unconscious behavior.
Lucille Parkinson McCarthy, author of the article, “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing Across the Curriculum”, conducted an experiment that followed one student over a twenty-one month period, through three separate college classes to record his behavioral changes in response to each of the class’s differences in their writing expectations. The purpose was to provide both student and professor a better understanding of the difficulties a student faces while adjusting to the different social and academic settings of each class. McCarthy chose to enter her study without any sort of hypothesis, therefore allowing herself an opportunity to better understand how each writing assignment related to the class specifically and “what
Vivid descriptions of the wind such as its’ “rattl[ing] the tops of garbage cans”, “dirt and dust and grime”, and “grit sting[ing] skins” create a sense of chaos that is common in the busy hustle of city life. The cold wind also “violent[ly] assault[s]” the residents of the city, allowing the reader to envision the truly excruciating and harrowing journey people in the urban setting must make regularly. Additionally, asyndeton is utilized masterfully throughout the passage to demonstrate the disarray caused by the wind. The wind finds “theater throwaways, announcements of dances and lodge meetings, the heavy waxed paper that loaves of bread had been wrapped in, the thinner waxed paper that enclosed sandwiches, old envelopes, newspapers.” This extensive list without the use of conjunctions speeds up the reading allowing a fast pace similar to the rapid attacks of the wind, enabling the reader to visualize the onslaught on the citizens.
In Chapter 12 of Readings for Sociology, Garth Massey included and piece titled “The Code of the Streets,” written by Elijah Anderson. Anderson describes both a subculture and a counterculture found in inner-city neighborhoods in America. Anderson discusses “decent families,” and “street families,” he differentiates the two in in doing so he describes the so called “Code of the Streets.” This code is an exemplifies, norms, deviance, socialization, and the ideas of subcultures and countercultures.
2) This extract is found in “The White Album” written by Joan Didion, who is the creator of many significant different literature pieces, both novels and essays. “The White Album” was published in 1979, and is the first and longest essay in the book. In this essay Joan Didion essentially uses a women as a connecting thread to describe what was happening in America at that time. I believe that the woman may even be herself to a certain extent, trying to externalize all her thoughts. What is perceived from the essay is that Didion was submerged into the focus of some big events that were happening in that year, not only as a journalist but also as a bystander and a normal Californian.
In her dreamy half essay half-diary entry “On Keeping a Notebook”, Joan Didion weaves together stories, associations, reflections, and suggestions to reveal the personal value of using a diary or notebook. While the reader cannot be sure whether the essay is written for anyone else to read, Didion makes her ideas highly compelling through the use of ambiguity, anecdote, circular narrative, stream of consciousness, a casual structure, and subtle self-exemplification. The result of this is an artistic and thought provoking journey into the mind of a notetaker. The drive of the essay is often that of confusion which slowly evolves into interest, a clever strategy to intrigue the reader. Rather than begin any boring old thesis, Didion jumps directly into the action with a diary entry which is intentionally ambiguous, “ ‘That woman Estell - is partly the reason why George Sharp and I are separated today.
Well-known writer and essayist Joan Didion, in her essay, The White Album, shatters every preconceived notion of the late nineteen sixties. Set primarily in Los Angeles, California Didion blends reportage and personal essay to recount cultural tensions that arose during the period- protests, murder, apathy-with her own psychosis. Incorporating fragmented narrative and film technique Didion offers snapshots of the events with language that is curt yet symbolic of her unique style. “The White Album,” demonstrates that everything in life is meant to teach us something. Through Didion’s experiences behind the pen, as a news reporter, her narration attempts to understand the lesson and discovers "We Tell OURSELVES STORIES in order to live" (Didion
Joan Didion uses rhetorical words in her essay “Morality,” to explain her reasons why she viewed morality as social, and established expectation. Didion starts her essay, by presenting emotional appeals to her particular setting. “As it happens, I am in Death Valley, in a room at the Enterprise Motel and Trailer Park, and it is July, and it is hot (Didion 106).” The significance in describing the setting is that it helps create a tone, such that it, evokes emotions of isolation, despair, and loneliness. After describing her setting, Didion states, “A word I distrust more every day, but in my mind veers inflexibility toward the particular (Didion 106).”
Poetry Analysis Once the poem “History Lesson” was written numerous poetry foundations celebrated it for many reasons. “History Lesson” not only makes an impact on literature today it has also impacted people also. This poem inspires people and moves them to the point to where they can find a personal connection to the poem itself and to the writer. Not only does it hold emotional value for those who were victimized and those whose family were victimized by the laws of segregation, but the poem is also celebrated for its complexity. The poem uses many techniques to appeal to the reader.
“What is going on in these pictures in my mind?” (Didion 2). Joan Didion’s “Why I Write” provides an explanation to her perspective om writing and why she writes. Later on, she states that she writes as a way to discover the meaning behind what she is seeing. During this past semester as we wrote about dance, a heavy focus was on description and interpretation rather than contextualization and evaluation.
When writing her personal essay “In Bed”, author Joan Didion intended it for an audience very familiar with migraines, however, it has the potential to be written for an audience of people just beginning to experience migraines. Didion’s use of personal anecdotes, factual information, and inspiring acceptance are all points that can be altered for this new audience. Didion begins her essay with personal accounts of her experiences with migraines, setting the stage for an introduction that relates to newcomers. She describes the suffering in which she endures during her migrains, composed of imagery that brings the reader into her situation. Where she begins with stating that she “spend[s] the day in bed with a migraine”, she could instead present this as a question to the reader.
