22. On Self Respect

Joan Didion starts with a personal anecdote of the time when she lost hope after not being accepted to a group that she wanted to join. It wasn't until this incident that she realized that not everything revolved as the way she wanted them to. The author explains that self respect is simply being okay with oneself even when one makes mistakes. With knowing "the price of things", one is  courageous in making mistakes. Self respect helps one to stand up for oneself even when people and trivial matters try to bring one down. 

The article was overly complex.The author did use good vocabulary and grammar but she made several points in the article which were all jumbled up, giving a hard time for the reader to find the main point. This article consists of philosophy, history, and thought. This type of structure played a prominent role in the essay, by getting me to think about myself, but in some ways it can be overly too complex for some readers to comprehend.  The author used awful lot of examples from literature and history to back up her ideas and arguments; however, it was inconspicuous to determine how some examples related to what she was trying to say. It's encouraging to see that people are seeing the worth of self respect and are trying to help others gain that as well, but hopefully in the future they can entangle these ideas more simply.  

http://profacero.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/joan-didion-on-self-respect/