Joan Didion Essay
Joan Didion Essay
In the essay “On Self-Respect” by Joan Didion one is confronted by the perception of delusion and self-deception. Throughout the essay Didion uses an array of allusions, images, and diction to persuade us into comprehending the essay and what it is trying to display. The essay evaluates and condemns various allusions that help to convey Didion’s message that she is trying to get across that when you have self-respect you have more benefits than when you self-reproach. In paragraph two Didion explains how she has not been elected to Phi Beta Kappa and that the “failure could scarcely have been more predictable or less ambiguous.” Didion knew she did not have the grades for it. She explains a past event that helps us understand more about her and why she might feel the need to write an essay over self-respect and self-reproach. Didion creates an image in the readers mind that now because of her past events she had been stripped of her innocence. Didion was so used to having everything go her way but now she realizes that the, “lights will not always turn green” for her. She now regrets not trying harder and blames herself for not being elected to attend Kappa, which makes her not have any self-respect for herself as a person. Throughout the first half of the essay Didion explains self-respect and how one can be stripped of it but also what self-respect is about. In paragraph four Didion describes that to have no self-respect is to just lie awake during the night and think about all the regrets we have and to blame our self as we lie there not able to turn off the voice in our head. Didion uses the allusions of self-reproach or self-deception in paragraph four. Paragraph five reads, “It’s our choice to sleep in the bed we make,” what Didion is trying to get across is that the bed we make is the future path we set. It is our choice to sleep in it or in other words walk that path to self-respect. This paragraph addresses an image in the
In the essay “On Self-Respect” by Joan Didion one is confronted by the perception of delusion and self-deception. Throughout the essay Didion uses an array of allusions, images, and diction to persuade us into comprehending the essay and what it is trying to display. The essay evaluates and condemns various allusions that help to convey Didion’s message that she is trying to get across that when you have self-respect you have more benefits than when you self-reproach. In paragraph two Didion explains how she has not been elected to Phi Beta Kappa and that the “failure could scarcely have been more predictable or less ambiguous.” Didion knew she did not have the grades for it. She explains a past event that helps us understand more about her and why she might feel the need to write an essay over self-respect and self-reproach. Didion creates an image in the readers mind that now because of her past events she had been stripped of her innocence. Didion was so used to having everything go her way but now she realizes that the, “lights will not always turn green” for her. She now regrets not trying harder and blames herself for not being elected to attend Kappa, which makes her not have any self-respect for herself as a person. Throughout the first half of the essay Didion explains self-respect and how one can be stripped of it but also what self-respect is about. In paragraph four Didion describes that to have no self-respect is to just lie awake during the night and think about all the regrets we have and to blame our self as we lie there not able to turn off the voice in our head. Didion uses the allusions of self-reproach or self-deception in paragraph four. Paragraph five reads, “It’s our choice to sleep in the bed we make,” what Didion is trying to get across is that the bed we make is the future path we set. It is our choice to sleep in it or in other words walk that path to self-respect. This paragraph addresses an image in the