Santa Ana Winds In Joan Didion's Los Angeles Notebook
Santa Ana Winds Essay
The Santa Ana winds may seem like a regular occurrence in sunny California, but a chilling realization about this seemingly normal weather phenomenon from Didion comes to show a deeper revelation than the mind first comes to see. In Joan Didion’s excerpt from, “Los Angeles Notebook,” the Santa Ana winds are described as both a wonder and an “eerie” mystery. The underlying message of the passage can be conveyed through diction, syntax, and imagery.
Didion creates a daunting atmosphere through her disheartening diction. Strategically using words such as, “uneasy”, “isolated”, and, “unnatural stillness”, she reveals the loneliness brought out by these perplexing winds. These words were distinctly chosen to connect to the loneliness of both the reader and Didion. The pathos that the author evoked with the reader through specific diction to ignite that ‘chilling realization’ of the abstruse Santa Ana winds aforementioned. Words such as, “ions”, and “physicists” not only are used to describe the situation, but to depict a sense of intelligence and knowledge of a large extent that gives this situation a sense of reality. This will relate to the readers in a sense of connection to the author once again. It will also possibly help them recognize the real obstacles and points at issue that could really occur.
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To carry the negative and dark mood of the passage throughout, Didion uses many abrupt, clear-cut sentences such as, “The baby frets”, and, “The maid sulks”. This use of sentence structure describes someone who seems slightly nervous and is searching for a way to distract themselves with their surroundings. It ties back to the wonders and “eerie” mysteries of the Santa Ana winds mentioned
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