Joan Didion's diction and imagery throughout the story creates danger, tension and mysteriousness. In the first paragraph, she describes the wind as "uneasy" and "tense". She states that the wind "whines" through the canyons and "dries the nerves to a flash point". She describes sires blaring, babies crying, arguments and sulking. She also talks about Indians jumping into the sea and bar fights. Overall, through diction and imagery, Didion creates a tense mood.
Alongside Didion's diction and imagery, she uses syntax and detail to create the atmosphere. her sentences show her personal feelings and her anticipatory syntax creates a tense mood. She focuses on the affects of the Santa Ana winds descrbing the "nnervousness", "depression", "nausea" and "allergies". She also mentions the rise in suicide rate and crime caused by the wind. The detailing in this part of the passage makes the mood tense as well.
Although Didion has a destructive view about th accee winds, she sees them as being a part of nature. In the third paragraph she begins to move towards the scientific reasons for the Santa Ana einds. Her tone also changes as it becomes more accepting in the third paragraph by saying that even though the Santa Ana winds are destructive, they are a part of Los Angeles that couldn't be escaped from. Joan Didion doesnt hate the wonds, she simply accepts them.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
In Richard Connell’s thrilling short story “The Most Dangerous Game”, an uneasy mood is constructed by Rainsford’s illusive adventure on Ship Trap Island. Many moments in the short story help build up a feeling of uneasy, one being when Winston uses a simile to describe the evil of the atmosphere, saying that the air “ was actually poisonous”, and that he felt a “mental chill, a sort of sudden dread” when the ship neared the island (Connell 1). The author makes the reader feel uneasy by making just the atmosphere itself seem evil and dangerous with the simile comparing the air to something that kills and is to be avoided. Readers also naturally pick up the feeling of dread from Whitney, which significantly helps in building…
- 319 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Joan Didion’s book, Slouching Toward Bethlehem, takes place in California during the 1960s. She opens the book with a different feel from what most people would have imagined California to be like today. People picture California as a beautiful place full of sunshine and happiness and make it out to be the ideal life. However, Didion describes how terribly wrong that visualization of California is. During the 1960s, it was a place of “love and death in the golden land,” and it held “seasons of suicide and divorce” (3).…
- 350 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Didion's assertion decision made a foreboding setting for the Santa Ana winds. The words "shouting", "spooky", and "strange" in section two were utilized to pass on the uneasiness the Santa Ana winds bring. it is similar to a mist of disruption and disorder covers the city as the Santa Ana's ignore.…
- 523 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
To begin the passage, Petry sets a dark, desolate mood as she personifies the wind as relentless and assaulting. It is made blatantly clear that the weather “did everything it could to discourage the people along the street” and is restraining to the inhabitants of the city. Petry utilizes vivid words to enhance the strength and vigour of the wind, further adding to the life-like qualities that the wind possesses. The first encounter between Lutie Johnson and the wind is at line 34 which aids in effectively establishing the persona of the wind, and its relationship with the city. Again, Petry exercises the use of personification in making their first meeting uncomfortable and chilling. As Ms. Johnson is introduced, the wind is molesting her in a way. One can imagine that the wind is a man that completely disregards those on the receiving end of his actions. It lifts the hair away from her neck and she feels “suddenly naked”. Once more, the wind is personified as having fingers which “[touch] the back of her neck [and explore] the sides of her head”.…
- 387 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Didion explicitly said “science bears out folk wisdom.” This means that she believes there is a scientific explanation to why people are on edge during the Santa Ana winds. Through research she discovers that an Israeli physicist discovered that prior to the Santa Ana winds there is an abnormally high level of positively charged ions. The scientist don’t know why this happens, but they do know “positive ions does, in simplest terms, is make people unhappy.” This research into the facts of Santa Ana winds tants her view of the winds, because now she believes that they are affecting her body. Didion uses the Los Angeles Times as a source of her knowledge as well. The Los Angeles Times has a negative perspective of the Santa Ana winds, because it focuses on the deaths and destruction of the winds. This influence has also solidify Didion’s negative perspective on the…
- 1237 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
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.…
- 536 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Tension and unease is used in novels to keep the reader guessing, and to give them fear and worry when reading. I am writing this essay to show how Susan Hill has created tension and unease in the first 3 chapters of her novel, 'The Woman in black'.…
- 492 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Through the use of vibrant diction, syntax, and ever changing tone, the author is able to create a dramatic, yet sorrowful story that affects the reader on many levels.…
- 623 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In Joan Didion’s Los Angeles Notebook, she depicts the wind’s presence as sinister, however, her description clearly shows that she believes this is an incredibly mysterious and foreboding occurrence. Her use of diction and imagery set the tone for the essay, while her use of detail supports this claim.…
- 409 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In Didion's essay, "Los Angeles Notebook," she characterizes the Santa Ana winds as motivation for evil. Didion expresses this view through her imagery and diction. Didion also justifies her characterization through the structure and tone of her essay. She attributes the acts of individuals all over the world on the effects of wind. She claims that certain winds trigger a mechanistic switch that causes humans to act irrationally. Didion connects a natural phenomenon with the cause of an unconscious reaction by living organisms.…
- 447 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
So in the end of Sawtelle, the literary device of weather is shown to be a way in which matters would be displayed. Whether it symbolize foreshadowing or the illustrative representation of an ongoing conflict, weather can be used to further emphasize on a subject the author wants the reader to consider as something very…
- 705 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Roseville is a city in Placer County, located in the metropolitan area of Sacramento. The 2010 U.S. Census stated that Roseville's population was 118,788. Originally Roseville was known by a stage coach station called Grinders. As it started to develop, the name was changed to Junction due to the construction of the railroads. Roseville was incorporated as a city in 1909. According to the Roseville Civic Center, the city has a total area of 42.26 square miles, of which, 42.24 square miles of it is land and 0.002 is water. Dry Creek, Linda Creek, Secret Ravine and Cirby Creek are some of the streams the flow through Roseville.…
- 464 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The opening line of Swallow the Air immediately draws us into May’s story with its conversational tone: “I remember the day I found out my mother was head sick.” In the same paragraph strong emotive language positions us as readers to sympathise with May’s mother and her story: “…Mum’s sad emerald eyes bled through her black canvas and tortured willow hair.”…
- 698 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The Santa Ana make people feel very malicious and cruel. Joan Didion used subjective description by displaying the wickedness in the hearts of the people who got hit by the Santa Ana winds when Raymond Chandler said “meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen(36)”. It comes to the point that the humble and harmless women even feel a little evil in them and think of the worst things they can do to people they once cared about. Another example of how Joan Didion used subjective description is when she states how her neighbor would “roam the place with a machete” and how “he would tell [her] that he heard a trespasser, the next a rattlesnake(36)”. It seems as if the Santa Ana winds create visions and thoughts of fearful and overwhelming ideas. The neighbor had not physically seen the rattlesnake or a trespasser because he says he “heard” them. His mind makes him believe they are there and it is difficult to ignore something your mind knows so clearly. The winds affect people so much that it comes to the point where people go to the doctors and complain “about headache and nausea and…
- 360 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The Storm’s Warnings shows how much description Kate used in this writing. The description of the dark clouds, sound of thunder, and the strike of lightning shapes this story to match the raw passion wanting to escape. Kate wants us to see the limitation placed on the human will. She gives the reader a glimpse for the promise of freedom. There is a hope of pure enjoyment without a moment’s notice.…
- 1204 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays