Essay - Literature the Essays of Joan Didion Joan Didion is a...

Literature

The Essays of Joan Didion

Joan ***** is a writer best known for her ess*****ys. These essays were collected in two volumes, Slouching toward Bethlehem (1968) and The White Album (1979). Both of these established Didion as a successful essayist. While she also wrote novels, fiction and screenplays, it w***** always her ***** that remained most popular. To consider this further, the essays of Didion will now be analyzed. This will begin with a look at several examples. Her writing style will then be considered. Finally, this will be concluded with a ***** at why her work is worth reading.

Examples of the Essays of Joan *****

The first essay that will be considered is "The ***** Album," ***** title piece from the collection ***** ***** of the same name. Th***** essay deals with the subject of story telling. Didion observes that in stories, the reader is not satisfied unless *****re is an end*****g to the story or something about the ***** being told that allows it to makes sense. The crucial observation ***** Didion makes is that in real life ***** sat*****faction does not exist. People's lives and the stories people come across in the lives of others do ***** have satisfying endings and do not often make sense. Yet, when wr*****ers sit down to write ***** they turn them into what the reader supposedly wants. ***** ***** only tells the reader that ***** want a story to have an ending, she shows this to the *****. This is achieved by Didion offering ***** narratives and ***** end without having any closure. The reader is experiencing exactly what ***** is describing. As Didion says at the start of the essay, "We tell ourselves stories in order to live" (Didion The White Album 11). ***** statement ***** the basis ***** Didion's argument, that stories are not a reflection of re*****l *****, they ***** a reflection ***** what people want real life to be. ***** she descri*****s,

***** ***** ourselves that it *****s some difference whether the naked woman is about to commit a mortal sin or ***** about ***** register a political protest or is about to be, the Aristophanic view, snatched back to the human condition by ***** fireman in priest's clothing just visible in the window behind her, the one smiling at the telephoto lens. We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson ***** the murder of five" (Didion The White ***** 11).

This passage shows how people not only need to see a story with an *****ing in books, but ***** need to build stories out of life. Despite ***** people **********g to control ***** underst*****d life, the reality remains, that life can never be controlled or even understood.

***** second essay on a similar ********** is "Good Citizens" also from the book of *****s The ***** Album. In this essay Didion focuses on how social and political worlds create meaning, with***** ***** aware ***** the larger picture they are