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Joan Didion's Los Angeles Notebook

Joan Didion's Los Angeles Notebook

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1960’s essayist, Joan Didion, in her essay, “Los Angeles Notebook,” writes about the Santa Ana winds and their effect on human behavior. Didion’s purpose is to not only explore the Santa Ana winds, but to especially explain how these unique winds influence humans. She adopts a perturbed tone in order to unnerve all those who read her essay. To achieve this tone and her purpose as a whole, Didion employs the powerful effect of diction.
Didion begins her essay by introducing the Santa Ana winds and by quickly establishing a feeling of tension, that is noticeable to readers through her diction. She sets the stage by describing what the winds cause people to feel through words such as “uneasy,” “unnatural,” and “tension.” The reader is immediately

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