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Your comment will be queued in Akismet! We're hoping to rely on loyal readers, rather than erratic ads. Didion chose specific and relevant examples, which appealed to her American readers, to prove her assertions. Another device that Didion expertly uses to clarify her argument for the reader is a conversational tone.
Didion utilizes a more personal second person style with "you" in order to build a connection with her readers. With this relationship with her audience, she can be informal wherever necessary to clarify her points. This would have been nearly impossible without a conversational and more personal tone. Didion makes the reader view her as a friend which helps her convey her points more effectively.
Although On Morality is a well-written essay, it could have been more impactful if it was more focused and had fewer complex words. Didion substantiates her claim and sub- claims using complex stylistic devices but her penchant for going into details becomes digressive on some occasions. For instance, while proving that one can hardly find any good she uses a specific story about the eighteen-year-old widow but before that she described the news transfer system in California.
This information does not serve her purpose and veers the mind of the readers away from the main argument, subsequently decreasing the impact of the argument. On more than one occasion, Didion talks about how much she loathes the desert in the essay. This information may be meaningful in an overarching view of Slouching Towards Bethlehem but does not serve to prove her argument rather it distracts the reader. The other element of her style that weakens her argument is the use of complex diction at critical moments in the essay.
It cannot be denied that complex words are a necessity while explaining a complex concept like morality but at some occasions, Didion was completely unintelligible to an average English language reader. The complex diction and occasional digressions hinder On Morality from reaching its true potential.
Had Didion improved these areas of her writing style in this essay, her argument would have been better understood by more people thus it would have been more impactful. In conclusion, On Morality aims to persuade its readers to re-evaluate their perspective on morality and look at this concept in a broader light. Snapchat and Instagram and find ourselves reflexively belting out song lyrics that directly contradict our values. Joan Didion, a unique and relatable but brilliant author, seems to have an understanding that the challenges she faced as a freshman in college in the s would still be relevant and problematic for college students almost 70 years later.
Often times, young people are misled by the financial success of some and assume that is typical of city people. Writers who see by the light of their Christian faith will have, in these times, the sharpest eye for the grotesque, for the perverse, and for the unacceptable….
To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures. The promise of a warm soothing summer becomes irresistible after enduring endless winter nights of the northern latitudes.
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