Joan Didion touches on a very relatable topic, self-respect. This personal article talks about how she lost her innocence -- the capability of loving herself. Didion molds the idea of having self-respect for yourself as you grow up. She mentions how the day she did not get in to Phi Beta Kappa completely shredded her self-image, and then later states her thesis: “Innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself”. Then she starts exploring the meaning of self-respect by providing different case scenarios in society (in history). Didion also explains how writing can help us feel less alone in times of struggle. What she is basically saying is that self-respect is much more important than self-image. We need to learn how to be content with who we are so we do not become dependent on other people's expectations. Fortunately, we all know self-respect intuitively, but some of us just choose to ignore it.
I can tell Didion is a great writer. She uses strong verbs and descriptive adverbs. She is also effective in supporting her thesis with her different examples of how self-respect relates to us and even uses references from classical books, like Wuthering Heights and The Great Gatsby. Didion is very personal and genuine in this article, which I really enjoyed. However, I had a really hard time following what she was saying. She seems to stall a lot, but I guess that could be just me. I usually get easily distracted so I enjoy articles that get straight to the point, which was certainly not the case in this selection. I think it is mainly due to her wordy sentences. She uses a lot of adverbs, which does not bother me most of the time but as I recall from the book I read "On Writing" by Stephen King, simpler is better. Just using a few powerful verbs is better than using adverbs at all. I say all this, but I feel like her style of writing is truly unique. I think this article is targeted for women who love to read, because of its sentimental and personal tone (and because it has a lot of references to history and classic books), and although I love its message (the importance of self-respect), this article is just not the style I am used to reading.
http://profacero.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/joan-didion-on-self-respect/
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