Sydney Didion Reflection

Discussion and Reflection The discussions we had in the groups really helped to deeper understand the book and the tones that Didion was trying to convey. One point that Sydney D. said about the reason Didion uses so much synthesis, is for us to understand what she was trying to express without the story being flooded with emotions. This made me realize the reason she has so much synthesis is so the story wouldn’t be clouded with emotion and without it the story wouldn’t be as relatable. When we were discussing why Didion uses repetition often, Theo said that the repetition showed Didion’s change in grief over time. Mary Grace mentioned another reason Didion used synthesis was to help calm her down and further Didion’s understanding of why she was feeling the ways she did and knowing that other people go through the same grief that she was going through.
said a interesting comment that i agreed with saying that even though Didion was known as the “cool costumer”, she actually had chaotic emotion inside her head which she didn’t know how to express them, so she would shut down to that “cool costumer” mask she put on. It was also the reason she used so much synthesis as a way to understand the emotions she was feeling and know a way to express them. I would give our discussion a 8 or 9 because everyone was involved and gave insightful points, some everyone knew or agreed on and some that we might not have thought about before and therefore broadened our understanding. For example, we jumped into the discussion of Didion’s style of organization and I hadn’t really payed much attention to why she put the events in the order she did, but we realized it was strategically put “all over the place” to show how the author’s emotions kept jumping around and that she could calm her train of