Joan Didion's Essay

The opening paragraphs in Joan Didion's essay, "Los Angeles Notebook", describe the Santa Ana winds which occur in the southwest region of the United States. The cruel winds create harsh weather for the inhabitants of the area. The author, however, isn't afraid of these dangerous winds, but rather in awe of them. Instead of being frightened by them, Didion is nervous of the wind's powers. Throughout her essay, Didion portrays the winds as controlling the people who are ultimately unable to control their behavior, utilizes vivid examples like the Indians, neighbors, and peacocks to relate to the winds, and uses an appeal to authority to show how the winds cannot be explained by science, but rather through folklore.

The Santa Ana winds create a mechanistic atmosphere around the people it affects. People are unable to control their behaviors, or their actions as the winds ultimately control every aspect of the inhabitants of the region. Prime examples throughout the essay are shown in the baby fretting, the maid sulking, and the dormant behavior of the neighbors. These actions are automatic due to the wind's arrival and affect it has on the environment. Almost anything could happen because of the wind. The Santa Ana winds were a controlling force that took over, a feeling that consumed the people affected by them, and ultimately the power pulling all the strings behind everyone's behavior; thus creating the mechanistic qualities of the winds. Didion's thesis proves all of this which is shown in the last sentence of the first paragraph.

In the essay, Didion creates examples that closely relate to the Santa Ana winds and its qualities. These examples include: the reference to Indians, neighbors, and the peacocks. The Indians relate to the wind's longevity and history. The Indians believed in folklore and existed thousands of years in history, just like the winds which have unbelievable characteristics and have been around since the beginning of time. The neighbors display the affects of the winds on the people. It causes them to go crazy; people acting weird, carrying machetes, and running around crazy. The Santa Ana winds control these people and turn them insane. The reference to the peacocks in the essay was for the sole purpose of relating to the winds affect on nature. The peacocks go crazy too because of the winds. These examples are given to create a close tie between the winds and history, nature, and the affects it has on the area it controls.

Didion also utilizes an appeal to authority to show that the winds affect is universal and affects a global population. The affects of the wind cannot be explained with science or logic, but with folk wisdom instead. The author shows that the Santa Ana winds are beyond reality with its unpredictable features. The affects the winds have on people, the mechanistic aspects of the winds, and the Santa Ana winds themselves are an unexplainable