The Santa Ana Winds in the Los Angeles Notebook

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.

Didion's use of imagery and diction portrays the winds as an evil force that is intangible and unconscious. Didion states, "That the Indians would throw themselves into the sea when the bad wind blew." There, Didion's word choice of "bad" characterizes the winds. She later declares, "The Pacific turned ominously glossy during the Santa Ana period, and one woke in the night troubled not only by the peacocks screaming in the olive trees but by the eerie absence of surf." In that sentence, Didion appeals to the senses of hearing and sight. Didion continues by saying, "The sky had a yellow cast, the kind of light sometimes called "earthquake weather"." Here Didion invokes the senses of sight and touch to relate that to disasters. Didion later says, "Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks." Again, Didion draws out a sense of sight and touch. Didion's word choice and invoking of senses helps to establish that winds are evil and a cause for wrongdoing.

Didion also proves her theory about the wind being a switch with her tone and structure. Didion?s tone is sympathetic to a cause. She persuades a switch to her view and characterization towards the wind. Didion?s tone also has a sense that she is proving something, almost like a lawyer prosecuting a case. Didion?s structure also shows a defensive state. She starts first starts by stating that she believes that the wind causes wrongdoing. She continues by giving examples, like about her neighbor, to prove her theory. She says, ?The air carries an unusually high ratio of positive to negative ions.? This is a scientific defense of her theory.

Didion uses her own opinion and some scientific backing to characterize the wind as an evil force. It is sometimes hard to tell between science and old wife?s tales. If attempting to prove something, a view of data can be biased. The interpretation of the information can favor the wanted side, or information can ignore that disproves a theory. It?s hard to say if Didion?s view of the wind is fact or fiction. One thing that cannot be disputed is that she believes that it is evil.