In Joan Didion’s essay, On Self Respect, Didion effectively analyzes what it truly means to have self-respect for oneself or, in other words, value oneself. Didion acknowledges the fact that having self-respect will not protect oneself from failure or mistakes, but rather that it will allow oneself to be comfortable in times of failure and mistakes. Didion’s statement that, “to do without self-respect, on the other hand, is to be an unwilling audience of one to an interminable home movie that documents one’s failing, both real and imagined, with fresh footage spliced in for each screening. There’s the glass you broke in anger, there’s the hurt on X’s face; watch now, this next scene, the night Y came back from Houston, see how you muff this
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However, her argument that, one’s self-respect is not found in the approval of others, but rather within oneself, resonates with me the most. Didion states that, “the dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others—who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation—which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is something that people with courage can do without”. This argument made by Didion is the most effective to me, because daily I witness the younger generation, including myself, seeking self-respect through social media or the approval of others, rather than within. I often find my friends upset if they post a picture on Instagram and don’t get as many likes as they had expected and then, in turn, become critical of themselves or compare themselves to others. On the other hand, I never post to Instagram because before I even post, I have already pointed out all my flaws in the picture and don’t want to give others the chance to do the same. Didion’s argument made me realize the importance of finding my self-respect from within rather than through the approval of others. Most importantly, her essay taught me that, if I seek my self-respect through the approval of others, I will devalue myself and, in the end, be left
However, her argument that, one’s self-respect is not found in the approval of others, but rather within oneself, resonates with me the most. Didion states that, “the dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others—who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation—which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is something that people with courage can do without”. This argument made by Didion is the most effective to me, because daily I witness the younger generation, including myself, seeking self-respect through social media or the approval of others, rather than within. I often find my friends upset if they post a picture on Instagram and don’t get as many likes as they had expected and then, in turn, become critical of themselves or compare themselves to others. On the other hand, I never post to Instagram because before I even post, I have already pointed out all my flaws in the picture and don’t want to give others the chance to do the same. Didion’s argument made me realize the importance of finding my self-respect from within rather than through the approval of others. Most importantly, her essay taught me that, if I seek my self-respect through the approval of others, I will devalue myself and, in the end, be left