Analysis Essay
In Joan Didion’s essay “On Self-Respect”, Didion uses allusions and complex syntax to convey her critical tone of the way self-respect is viewed by society. Didion believes that not everyone has self-respect and that it comes along through work and not just handed to one. Didion is critical towards the way that one thinks one has self-respect and believes that self-respect is a delusion.
Didion’s use of allusions to famous stories, not only displays her own words to prove her view on self-respect, but includes comparisons to characters that that readers are familiar with; she displays the false thought of self-respect and the true aspects of it. She uses an allusion to The Great Gatsby’s Jordan Baker and compares her to Julian English with self-respect, “Jordan Baker had it, Julian English did not”. The reader can picture each of these character from Didion allusions to be able to compare the character’s attitudes and behavior. One of these characters is an example of someone with self-respect. Jordan Baker displays self-respect because she controls her own life, with all its failures and mishaps. Didion makes a comical remark, after not getting accepted to Phi Beta Kappa of imaging a “good man(preferably a cross between Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca and one of the Murchisons in a proxy fight)”. She thought that if she got into Phi Beta Kappa her life is going to be perfect. This allusion creates a sense that, because she got into this sorority, she deserved this handsome man. Her comical comment, pokes at herself(after she did not get into Phi Beta Kappa) and one who has no self-respect and unable to see failures in one’s life.
Didion’s complex syntax adds to the complex definition of self-respect and gives Didion a chance to add more information to further prove her point about self-respect. About being rejected by Phi Beta Kappa, Didion says, “this failure could scarcely have been more predictable or less ambiguous(I simply did not have the grades), but I was unnerved by it; I had somehow thought myself a kind of academic Raskolnikov, curiously exempt from the cause-effect relationships that hampered others”. Didion interjects herself to add information and to show how obvious it should have been to her that she would not have gotten into Phi Beta Kappa. Her story using this complex syntax is her example of showing how most people perceive self-respect; alike herself people are unable to see that failures will happen in life.
Through the use of complex syntax and allusions Joan Didion conveys her critical tone of the ideas of self-respect that run through society. Didion’s usage of these devices displays her ideas on self-respect and the falsified acknowledgement of true self-respect.
Didion’s use of allusions to famous stories, not only displays her own words to prove her view on self-respect, but includes comparisons to characters that that readers are familiar with; she displays the false thought of self-respect and the true aspects of it. She uses an allusion to The Great Gatsby’s Jordan Baker and compares her to Julian English with self-respect, “Jordan Baker had it, Julian English did not”. The reader can picture each of these character from Didion allusions to be able to compare the character’s attitudes and behavior. One of these characters is an example of someone with self-respect. Jordan Baker displays self-respect because she controls her own life, with all its failures and mishaps. Didion makes a comical remark, after not getting accepted to Phi Beta Kappa of imaging a “good man(preferably a cross between Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca and one of the Murchisons in a proxy fight)”. She thought that if she got into Phi Beta Kappa her life is going to be perfect. This allusion creates a sense that, because she got into this sorority, she deserved this handsome man. Her comical comment, pokes at herself(after she did not get into Phi Beta Kappa) and one who has no self-respect and unable to see failures in one’s life.
Didion’s complex syntax adds to the complex definition of self-respect and gives Didion a chance to add more information to further prove her point about self-respect. About being rejected by Phi Beta Kappa, Didion says, “this failure could scarcely have been more predictable or less ambiguous(I simply did not have the grades), but I was unnerved by it; I had somehow thought myself a kind of academic Raskolnikov, curiously exempt from the cause-effect relationships that hampered others”. Didion interjects herself to add information and to show how obvious it should have been to her that she would not have gotten into Phi Beta Kappa. Her story using this complex syntax is her example of showing how most people perceive self-respect; alike herself people are unable to see that failures will happen in life.
Through the use of complex syntax and allusions Joan Didion conveys her critical tone of the ideas of self-respect that run through society. Didion’s usage of these devices displays her ideas on self-respect and the falsified acknowledgement of true self-respect.