Didion "In Bed" Thoughtful Analysis
1.) What is Didion proving in this essay? What does she want to change?
Didion’s purpose for the essay is trying to convey the seriousness of migraines. To her, migraines are a medical condition as opposed to just a headache. She compares migraines to other serious conditions such as diabetes to change the stigma most people have on migraines.
2.) What is her ethos? Provide specific examples of her credibility.
Her ethos is her personal experience with the subject as demonstrated in the first paragraph: “Almost every day of every month, between these attacks, I feel the sudden irrational irritation and the flush of blood into the cerebral arteries which tell me that migraine is on its way, and I take certain drugs to avert its arrival.” She uses exact medical terms such as “Methysergide,” “lysergic acid,” and “synthesized LSD-25” to demonstrate her knowledge and research on the subject.
3.) Make observations about the remarkable language use in the first paragraph. Here are a few to get you started, but add a few of your own: “unconscious with pain,” “shameful secret,” “chemical inferiority.” What does each of these phrases do for the passage?
Didion is showing what the majority of people think of migraines by using these words. Most people don’t understand that it is more than a headache, but people think those who suffer from migraines are weak and that it’s something they do to themselves due to “bad attitudes, unpleasant tempers, [and] wrongthink.” Didion sort of mocks the general preconceived attitude towards her affliction.
4.) What is the intended effect of the parallel structure at the end of the second paragraph? What type of appeal is this? Be specific.
Didion utilizes the parallel structure to provide specific examples of her struggles with migraines. Didion uses logic to contradicts her statement the when she said “nothing wrong with me at all: I simply had migraine headaches, and migraine headaches were, as everyone who did not have them
Didion’s purpose for the essay is trying to convey the seriousness of migraines. To her, migraines are a medical condition as opposed to just a headache. She compares migraines to other serious conditions such as diabetes to change the stigma most people have on migraines.
2.) What is her ethos? Provide specific examples of her credibility.
Her ethos is her personal experience with the subject as demonstrated in the first paragraph: “Almost every day of every month, between these attacks, I feel the sudden irrational irritation and the flush of blood into the cerebral arteries which tell me that migraine is on its way, and I take certain drugs to avert its arrival.” She uses exact medical terms such as “Methysergide,” “lysergic acid,” and “synthesized LSD-25” to demonstrate her knowledge and research on the subject.
3.) Make observations about the remarkable language use in the first paragraph. Here are a few to get you started, but add a few of your own: “unconscious with pain,” “shameful secret,” “chemical inferiority.” What does each of these phrases do for the passage?
Didion is showing what the majority of people think of migraines by using these words. Most people don’t understand that it is more than a headache, but people think those who suffer from migraines are weak and that it’s something they do to themselves due to “bad attitudes, unpleasant tempers, [and] wrongthink.” Didion sort of mocks the general preconceived attitude towards her affliction.
4.) What is the intended effect of the parallel structure at the end of the second paragraph? What type of appeal is this? Be specific.
Didion utilizes the parallel structure to provide specific examples of her struggles with migraines. Didion uses logic to contradicts her statement the when she said “nothing wrong with me at all: I simply had migraine headaches, and migraine headaches were, as everyone who did not have them