Los Angeles Notebook Essay

Joan Didion, a concerned citizen living in the nicer parts of Los Angeles near the ocean, writes the “Los Angeles Notebook” about the return of the Santa Ana winds and how the winds are altering the ordinary behaviors of the Los Angeles citizens. Didion claims the Santa Ana winds aren’t just in Santa Ana, but also in Switzerland, and are very perilous with a strong disruption in normal human nature, suggesting a mechanistic behavior. Through her use of apprehensive diction, eerie imagery, and suspenseful syntax, Didion depicts the winds as a threatening entity. Throughout the entirety of the piece, Didion uses apprehensive diction to depict how the Santa Ana winds are changing the citizens and fluctuating them with varying emotions. Didion’s apprehensive diction highlights the Santa Ana winds effect on the mechanistic behaviors of humans by using words such as “eerie”, “ominously”, “uneasy”, and “tension”. Didion uses similar diction in order to put emphasis on her anxious tone. These words are used to establish a sense of cautiousness and mystifying feelings into the audience, pushing an awareness of the winds and how the winds are affecting everyday lives and contributing to the inhuman-like actions.
Her use of the word “machete” in the sentence, “And her husband roamed the place with a machete” displays her imagery. “Machete” has powerful imagery because it is usually seen in horror movies as an object of death and fear. This word makes the audience fearful in order to demonstrate how the wind is distressing people, causing them to go pyscho and cut away at their sanity. The winds are causing normal people to create so much fear and anxiety that they don’t act as their normal selves and become irrational, losing their sanity. The roaming of the husband holding a machete illustrates the how the wind is an intimidating being, varying the behavior of the people of Los