22. On Self-Respect

Joan Didion touches on the very sensitive topic of self-respect in her article, "On Self-Respect." She starts her essay with how unnerved she had been with the fact that she had not been elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She remarks that the day she had been rejected could double as the day she lost her innocence. She realized that not everything goes her way and now she cannot just expect things to happen just because she wants them to. She had doubted her own self-respect for the first time with no way to combat it. She continues with the fact that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval's of others, it is something completely personal. However, to be without self-respect means unwillingly having to deal with one's failures. While there are people with lack of self-respect, there are people with an abundance. Didion notes an interesting point that the older generation of our grandparents knew all about self-respect, whether they had it or not because for them it was a discipline. Self-respect is a kind of discipline, a habit of mind that can only be learned and not faked. She finishes her article saying that without self-respect, "Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home."

Didion writes a very interesting article about a very touchy subject, self-respect. She introduces her article in a quirky manner by incorporating something from her past and how that impacted her self-respect. This made the article relatable on a personal level. She uses a light tone consistently throughout her essay and uses many examples to support her statement. Her buildup to the main point of the article is a little slow but she was still able to deliver her ideas completely. She organized her essay very well, separating each component in separate paragraphs. She incorporated historical examples, personal examples and everyday examples which made the essay more engaging overall because of the diversity. Overall, Didion wrote a very interesting essay on a topic that is not commonly discussed in a thorough and engaging manner.