Author, Joan Didion, wrote to the Los Angeles notebook about the events of a Santa Ana to describe to others that had not been there what develops. Within her text, Didion writes using person pronouns such as “we, I, and us” to include herself with the people who experienced the storm first hand. She also uses colloquialisms including “Route 66” and “Cajon/San Gorgonio Passes,”information only people that live in or have visited that area would know. Her explicit audience is to people that live in the California but may not have experienced the storm themselves while her implicate audience would be to the people that had not been in the storm. As Didion describes the strange occurrences that happen in the preparation of a Santa Ana, she works
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The storm is described to “begin to blow, a hot wind from the northeast whining down through…..blowing up sandstorms out along route 66,drying the hills and nerves at flash point” (Didion 1). This sentence beginning the story is cumulative, building suspense as it moves along, similar to how a Santa Ana would gain momentum the bigger it grows. Further in, the author inserts the short simple sentences “the baby frets. The maid sulks” (Didion 1) and as a result conveys an absolute truth that can not be refuted, whereas her alternate sentences lengthen to further elaborate on the statement made with the simple sentences such as “To live with the Santa Ana is to accept..” (Didion 1). Choosing short simple sentences breaks up the smooth flow the paragraph had until that point, so choppy reading draws concise attention to the intended main point Didion is trying to communicate about a Santa Ana. Later in the paragraph the setting is described and “we will see smoke...and hear sirens,” and the residents know “we feel it” (Didion 1). It is a societal expectation that when a person hears or sees these images he/she is filled with a sense of dread, so including these words that same feeling of dread and the knowledge that something somewhere has gone wrong fills the
The storm is described to “begin to blow, a hot wind from the northeast whining down through…..blowing up sandstorms out along route 66,drying the hills and nerves at flash point” (Didion 1). This sentence beginning the story is cumulative, building suspense as it moves along, similar to how a Santa Ana would gain momentum the bigger it grows. Further in, the author inserts the short simple sentences “the baby frets. The maid sulks” (Didion 1) and as a result conveys an absolute truth that can not be refuted, whereas her alternate sentences lengthen to further elaborate on the statement made with the simple sentences such as “To live with the Santa Ana is to accept..” (Didion 1). Choosing short simple sentences breaks up the smooth flow the paragraph had until that point, so choppy reading draws concise attention to the intended main point Didion is trying to communicate about a Santa Ana. Later in the paragraph the setting is described and “we will see smoke...and hear sirens,” and the residents know “we feel it” (Didion 1). It is a societal expectation that when a person hears or sees these images he/she is filled with a sense of dread, so including these words that same feeling of dread and the knowledge that something somewhere has gone wrong fills the