Santa Ana Winds
Asya Evelyn
11/4/14
Period 1
The Santa Ana Winds Joan Didion feels that the Santa Anna Wind have a negative effect on people and makes people act very different. Throughout the passage Didion’s tone is negative and uneasy; and the same goes for her diction. She creates images that are negative, so the reader can understand her true thoughts and feelings toward the Santa Ana winds. She also gives details of the human behavior while the Santa Ana takes place. Didion opens up the passage by describing the Los Angeles air and implies that a negative change is coming:” There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension…” (1-2). This is a periodic sentence Didion uses to convey her argument and this creates a greater impact and understanding on the reader because the reader then begins to grasp what Didion’s argument is. This is a periodic sentence because the sentence isn’t complete until the end of the sentence. She begins the passage this way to develop visual imagery as well as tactile imagery. In the first two lines Didion creates an uneasy mysterious tone to convey her argument; that the Santa Ana causes distinctive changes in the people who are in the area. When Didion speaks about the stillness and the uneasiness in the air it gives the reader an idea of how the air is changing. Didion closes the first paragraph by stating that “to live the Santa Ana is to accept consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior” (14-16). Didion says that the Santa Ana has a strange and negative effect on people whether they realize it or not and the behaviors the winds bring are just something people have to deal with. In the second paragraph of the passage, Didion describes how the people in the area change and how their actions change: “My only neighbor would not come out of her house for days… and her husband roamed the place with a machete” (25-27). The tone continues to be uneasy as
11/4/14
Period 1
The Santa Ana Winds Joan Didion feels that the Santa Anna Wind have a negative effect on people and makes people act very different. Throughout the passage Didion’s tone is negative and uneasy; and the same goes for her diction. She creates images that are negative, so the reader can understand her true thoughts and feelings toward the Santa Ana winds. She also gives details of the human behavior while the Santa Ana takes place. Didion opens up the passage by describing the Los Angeles air and implies that a negative change is coming:” There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension…” (1-2). This is a periodic sentence Didion uses to convey her argument and this creates a greater impact and understanding on the reader because the reader then begins to grasp what Didion’s argument is. This is a periodic sentence because the sentence isn’t complete until the end of the sentence. She begins the passage this way to develop visual imagery as well as tactile imagery. In the first two lines Didion creates an uneasy mysterious tone to convey her argument; that the Santa Ana causes distinctive changes in the people who are in the area. When Didion speaks about the stillness and the uneasiness in the air it gives the reader an idea of how the air is changing. Didion closes the first paragraph by stating that “to live the Santa Ana is to accept consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior” (14-16). Didion says that the Santa Ana has a strange and negative effect on people whether they realize it or not and the behaviors the winds bring are just something people have to deal with. In the second paragraph of the passage, Didion describes how the people in the area change and how their actions change: “My only neighbor would not come out of her house for days… and her husband roamed the place with a machete” (25-27). The tone continues to be uneasy as