The winds of Santa Ana, as explained by a well-respected author, Joan Didion, occur on a hill of a mountain and shift from cold air to a dry and humid wind as it travels down the mountains into Los Angeles. At the beginning of Didion’s story “Los Angeles Notebook,” she emphasizes that the Santa Ana winds can be very dangerous and have very negative effects. Didion’s unpleasant feelings toward the Santa Ana Winds are depicted through the tone and imagery.
Didion uses tone to demonstrate the mysterious feeling of how the social atmosphere changes as the Santa Ana winds flow into Los Angeles. An example of this is at the beginning of her story the tone is negative and abnormal using words like “screaming”, “unnatural”, and “tension”. Didion uses spooky words and opinions in the beginning to sway and enthuse the reader. At the end of Didion’s story, she changes the tone to inform the reader more about the Santa Ana winds. One more example of tone is towards the end of her story she talks about the wind being similar to the “foehn wind” which is common in Switzerland “in Switzerland the suicidal rates go up and crime rates increase during the foehn winds” making the tone informative. Didion compares the foehn wind with the Santa Ana wind to show that both winds have the same unhappy effect on people. Didion uses this tone to help educate people on the Santa Ana winds and the side effects that take place when the winds flow in.
Didion uses visual imagery to convey the mysterious feeling that various people have when the Santa Ana winds blow into Los Angeles. An example of this is where Didion talks about when she saw the next-door neighbor walking around outside their house with the lights off and a machete in hand because he heard an intruder. Didion shows that the Santa Ana winds have a mesmerizing effect on everyone including her neighbor. In hindsight, the wind brings many abnormal changes to the social environment. Another example of imagery is “but by the eerie absence of surf”, and how the heat outside was making it unbearable. Didion emphasizes that the Santa Ana winds bring in heat that people cannot stand and are forced to stay indoors and antisocial. This demonstrates visual imagery by saying that because of the Santa Ana winds that there would be nobody surfing, as the winds bring a depressed mood amongst many people.
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Critical Essay on Santa Ana Winds by Joan Didion.
(2023, July 20). Edubirdie. Retrieved May 10, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/critical-essay-on-santa-ana-winds-by-joan-didion/
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