HistoryMission San Gabriel was founded on September 8, 1771 by fathers Pedro Cambon and Angel Somera. The planned site for the Mission was along the banks of the Río de los Temblores (the River of the Earthquakes—the Santa Ana River). The priests chose an alternate site on a fertile plain located directly alongside the Rio Hondo in the Whittier Narrows.[11] The site of the Misión Vieja (or "Old Mission") is located near the intersection of San Gabriel Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue in Montebello, California (known to the natives as Shevaanga). In 1776, a flash flood destroyed much of the crops and ruined the Mission complex, which was subsequently relocated five miles closer to the mountains in present-day San Gabriel (the native settlement of 'Iisanchanga). The Mission is the base from which the pueblo that became the city of Los Angeles, California was sent. On December 9, 1812 (the "Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin"), a series of massive earthquakes shook Southern California. The 1812 Wrightwood earthquake caused the three-bell campanario, located adjacent to the chapel's east façade, to collapse. A larger, six-bell structure was subsequently constructed at the far end of the capilla. While no pictorial record exists to document what the original structure looked like, architectural historian Rexford Newcomb deduced the design and published a depiction in his 1916 work The Franciscan Mission Architecture of Alta California.…
Slethaug, Gordon E. "Hurricanes and Fires: Chaotics in Sherman Alexie 's Smoke Signals and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." Literature Film Quarterly 31.2 (2003): 130-141. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 260. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. Slethaug in this critical essay clears the confusion of hurricane being real or not. According to him the hurricane is real, but a different phenomenon itself. In addition, as the role of Victor is of an observer, hurricane is also used as a metaphor to illustrate his observations of all the chaos that are taking place at the party. If one was confused about the entire hurricane situation and whether it was real or not, this can turn out to be very helpful for them as it thoroughly explains the situation. However, it would not be very useful if one was writing about the themes or other aspects of the story.…
Is it possible that in this literal, close-minded, needy world that a grace of Santa Ana wind can over power our body with distress and depression? Joan Didion’s masterfully composed essay, Los Angeles Notebook, conveys her view on the Santa Ana winds. Didion argues that a gentle touch of the wind will rapidly have one fall into a coma of distress and despair.…
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…
She uses some elements of a descriptive essay by stating, “An old woman was pounding dried peppers in a huge stone mortar. The breeze spread the fine powders, and many of us sneezed;” (154) While reading that sentence the audience can practically smell and feel the burn of the peppers. This does in fact appeal to the reader’s senses, but Li is describing an important memory in her life. This supports the fact that the essay is more of a narrative essay, rather than a descriptive…
The purpose of a descriptive essay is to describe a person, place, or thing in much detail. The author’s purpose is to recreate their experience in a way in which the reader can visualize the actual event. An essayist and poet known for writing these types of descriptive essays is Annie Dillard. Her essays consist of various types of imagery, which applies to all the senses, like sight, sounds, smell etc. These words aid the reader in visualizing and experiencing what the author is describing about. Two examples of Dillard’s descriptive essays are “Flood” and “Flying,” which are similar, but different in many ways by recreating events in the reader’s mind, providing objective and subjective details, and developing themes.…
The State of the Union address is portrayed as a “master class” in public speaking, as a result of the collaboration of stories embedded into the speech that contribute to a persuasive, antagonistic nature, as categorized by Joan Didion. In the essay, “Why I Write” Joan Didion, confesses to having stole the title from George Orwell, due to her appeal of the “I” sound. Immediately following this confession, Didion portrays the act of writing as being narcissistic, when she states, “In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind” (Dision 4). The introduction of this idea, may cause the reader to question the act of writing, and reflect on previously read novels or…
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.…
In the first paragraph Didion begins by describing the eerie feeling in the air with words that connote an anxious tone, such as “uneasy”, “unnatural”, and “tension”. She does not mention what she is describing in her piece until the next paragraph, which creates suspense and gives the reader the impression that the subject she speaks of is a terrible thing. Once she reveals the subject, the Santa Ana Winds, the piece gains a certain emphasis and the reader instantly connects it with being malevolent. Didion also depicts the scene which many denizens of the Los Angeles area will encounter during the Santa Ana period: “For a few days now we will see smoke back in the canyons, and hear sirens in the night” (239). In this excerpt she describes how the wind will cause many fires and maybe even deaths, which give the impression that the winds are very dangerous. The author remember how due to the wind “[She] rekindle[d] a waning argument with the telephone company” (239). The argument had weakened but the winds evoked a rage inside her that burst into uncontrollable actions, revealing how the wind negatively altered her emotions and actions.…
For example, Rawlings uses personification to give the wind a personality throughout the writing. She describes that the wind, “slammed both doors” and that the wind “tried to strangle him” exhibiting the angry and malevolent nature of wind during a storm. Also, Rawlings uses simile to describe the sky. She writes, “The morning, however, was clear, but the east was the color of blood.” The color red often is represented by danger and intensity, similar to the storm that Rawlings foreshadows with this simile. Add…
In the novel The Street by Ann Petry, there is an antagonist relationship between the main character, Ludie Johnson, and the wind that is terrorizing the city. Petry establishes the wind as an antagonist in the novel to show how the environment is affecting the daily lives of the residents of 116th Street by use of literary devices. The conflict with the wind is a daily occurrence in which every resident of 116th Street is faced with. The wind is personified; given human characteristics to show how the wind serves as the antagonist in the story. “It did everything it could to discourage the people walking along the street.’’ This quote shows how the wind pestered…
Imagery is the element of description and these two stories display it exceptionally. The Cold Equation by Tom Godwin and The Photograph by Will Weaver, descriptive imagery, that’s what they draw the reader along with. In The Cold Equation a teenage girl went onto the ship an EDS ship taking supplies to different planets and becomes a stowaway. In The Photograph there was a photo going around of a teacher that Anthony took. Then when they found out about the photo, Anthony ends up losing the position as team football manager and he gets in a lot of trouble taking a picture that he shouldn’t of taken. The direct focus on Imagery, in the stories The Cold Equation and The Photograph shows a parallel to one another by the physical, emotional and psychological vision they capture and cause in the reader.…
Weather can affect people’s behavior, positively and negatively. When the weather is nice and hot, it affects people positively by encouraging them to enjoy the outdoors, however, when the weather is bad, like when a hurricane hits this effects people negatively by worrying. Similarly, in the essay “Santa Ana Winds”, by Joan Dideon, the winds are so abrasive and obstructive that it engenders people to actually commit suicide. This occurs in Los Angeles. Even though Dideon provides a scientific explanation for the soft winds, she characterise hem as evil by showing their effects on people and on the environment.…
Thesis statement: Joan led a fascinating life and is one of the most heroic women in all of history: in her early years she struggled with being different, in her mid-life she was a military leader, and in the time of her death she was wrongly accused of something she had no part in.…
In the poems The Wind, by James Stephens, and the poem The Wind Tapped Like a Tired Man, by Emily Dickinson, both discuss the same topic, but share different opinions on it. The Wind has a negative connotation that goes along with wind, while The Wind Tapped Like a Tired Man, has a positive one. The feelings evoked in The Wind, are scary and symbolize a violent wind, like a storm. “And said he’d kill, and kill and kill;/And so he will! And so he will!”(Stephens 5-6). Using personification of the wind as a violent and mentally disturbed man or psychopath Stephens portrays wind negatively. Contrary to Stephens depiction of Wing, Dickinson thinks of the wind as peaceful and calm: " No bone had he to bind him/ His speech was like the push/ Of numerous…