...Joan Didion: What is Home? In Joan Didion’s essay “On Going Home” she writes about leading a double life. She feels like one person when she’s with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles, and a completely different person when back “home” surrounded by her childhood family in the Central Valley of California. During this particular trip, she begins to reflect on her life in Los Angeles. Didion contemplates the fact that she often feels uneasy around her husband, just like he feels uneasy being around her family. At a crossroad, she must decide not only who she is, and the life she wants, but also the kind of life she wants for her daughter. Her life in Los Angeles has cleansed her from her youth—one that was dusty and full of useless trinkets. She ponders the time her husband wrote the word “D-U-S-T” on those useless trinkets and she remembers her feelings of sadness and indignation. She says, “We live in dusty houses…filled with mementos quite without value to him” (139-40). The dust-covered trinkets signify what is important to her, or what needs to be addressed in her marriage. Yet, these objects just lay there waiting for someone to see them—for someone to dust them off and care for them—not unlike how Didion wishes her husband would see her and nurture her in their marriage. Didion wonders which of her two homes is normal or if they are both flawed. When she and her husband are with her family, he becomes apprehensive about her behavior, “…because once there I fall...
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...Rozy Karim Professor: Dr. Joanna Mansbridge English 104W November 29th, 2013 Strangers and how we perceive them. I was appalled by the sight of a young girl, malnourished, dirty, in torn cloths crying and begging for money on Ahmedabad Street in India. Just as I reached for my purse to give her some money, my host, Dr. Dalal pushed me aside, gestured me inside our parked car, locked the doors and exclaimed “I should have warned you! Haven’t you seen the movie “Slumdog Millionaire?” I was left shaking, words cannot describe the horror I felt for not helping out a poor desolate child. How could this helpless child be a victim of an organized crime of self-made beggars? To answer this question would be an essay in itself, however, I describe this, as one of many etched incidences in my life to illustrate that I misrecognized the beggar and was influenced by someone else’s preconceived stereotype image of “other, a stranger described as a beggar” that was different then us. The notion of “other and misrecognition” is described in Toni Morrison’s essay “Strangers” (1998) when she explores this concept by depicting a stranger as an image of a bizarre fisherwomen dressed in men’s clothing; while Brent Staples portrays his own image as a stranger and depicts how he is perceived as a threat to others in his essay “Black Men and Public Space” (1986). Although both Morrison and Staples offer differing accounts of their experiences and feelings, they both share the same vision...
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...2012 Erin Thomas The Salvation of Men Strategies used to convey the idea A nonfiction short story is way for authors to show the readers a look into an event or emotions they felt happen in their lives...the “On Going Home,” by Joan Didion and “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone” by Andrew Lam are the stories I will give a brief summary of the writer’s strategies used to convey their ideas, along with the theme, purpose, and how I personally relate to each story. Finally, there will be a discussion on nonfiction stories and imagination. In Joan Didion’s On Going Home, she express here inner feeling, emotions, and fear of change, while she is stuck in the past. Lam’s “Who will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone” focus on new traditions and the loss of old traditions. “On Going Home” is a short story by Joan Didion talks about going back to visit her family home ,the home where she grew up Central Valley of California. Didion talks about the emotions she goes through during her life there and the person she becomes when she is in her family home. She uses imagery and metaphors to describe the events she went through in her family home, and especially when her husband is involved. The family always talked about the same things according to Didion 1968; “we appear to talk exclusively about people we know who have been committed to mental hospitals.” and her husband cannot understand “why (P.620). “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone” is a short story...
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...Maya Angelou once said “You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it’s all right” In the essays “On Going Home” by Joan Didions and “Once more to the Lake” written by E.B Whites are two authors dealing with their personal issues as they compares and contrasts they current life and past, which are vastly different. The way they uses description in this essays and the flow of events is very similar to the way that memories rush in when one returns to a familiar place from one’s past To descript is to portray or re-create a scene, a person, a place or a feeling. Description is an important skill in communication between people, and it appears in most of the writing situation. An effective description requires a dominant impression; a central theme or idea about the subject to which readers can relate all the details. Joan Didions and E.B Whites uses description effectively in “On Going Home” and “Once More to the Lake”. “On Going Home” Didion describes her experiences and thoughts on what defines her meaning of home. Joan Didion begins her story by illustrating what "home" is to her. She describes how her home now is not the place where her husband and daughter live, but in the Central Valley of California with her family. With this introduction, one can sense that she is troubled by the differences between the two. Didion stated “My husband likes my family but is uneasy in their house, because once there I fall into their ways, which are difficult...
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...After thoughtful consideration, I have chosen to write my reaction paper about “On Going Home,” by Joan Didion and “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone?” by Andrew Lam. In any form of writing the reader can find various literary elements such as plot, character, setting, theme, and point of view. Also when a writer writes they have a purpose in mind. The writers purpose might be to inform, persuade, or entertain their readers. The writer may also want to describe something to the reader. In both “On Going Home,” by Joan Didion and “Who Will Light the Incense When Mother’s Gone?” by Andrew Lam I consider the theme to be the main element of both essays. In “On Going Home”, Didion’s theme is that of belonging and family. In Didion’s text, she makes use of three of the four main purposes of writing. Didion’s very first sentence is informing the reader as to why she is going home. The sentence reads “I am home for my daughter’s first birthday.” (Barnet, Burto, & Cain, 2014, 20111, 2007, 2005, 2003, p. 636) Didion also describes to the readers what her visits are like when she returns to her childhood house that she grew up in and why her husband does not like for her to take this trip. Didion also preserves the reader attention by keeping them entertained with her choice of particular dialect that transpires when she gets together with her family. Throughout her essay, Joan Didion notes the...
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...Professor DiFranco Essay #2 Sacramento Both Ernesto Galarza’s “Barrio Boy” and Joan Didion’s “Notes From a Native Daughter” write about Sacramento’s past. Both authors talk about Sacramento during two different time periods. Joan Didion talks about the mid-century and Ernesto Galarza talks about the early 20th century. Although both author’s perspective of Sacramento differs from era to era, there are differences in certain characteristics described by both authors. Galarza’s essay focuses on an immigrant point of view arriving into Sacramento versus Didion’s experiences as a native decedent of Sacramento. Joan Didion’s Sacramento is a very different place compared to Ernesto Galarza’s , for him it’s an immigrant place where Mexican, Yugoslavs, Chinese and many other different cultures come together to make one home. For Joan Didion, Sacramento is a place that with the pas of time and the changes that has come with time, have forced memories to be lost and most importantly identities. Didion highlights the true nature of Californian lifestyle and how with its gradual disappearance more than the past is being lost, but a new generation is also losing an understanding of its true roots, its true history and as a result a loss of knowledge. The loss of knowledge is equivalent to the loss of identity because if one doesn’t know where they came from how one can truly know who they are. Didion talks about her own experiences as a child in Sacramento and adulthood. She compares...
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...In Joan Didion’s essay, “On Going Home” Didion describes her experiences and thoughts on what defines her meaning of home. Didion uses many asyndetons and polysyndetons to emphasize her emotions and poses several rhetorical questions. Throughout the essay, Didion poses an important point that, perhaps her generation is the last to truly know the meaning behind the word “home”. The contributing factors to such conclusion derived from her personal experiences with her direct family (mother, father, and brother), her husband, and even her own daughter. Didion first sets her definition of home by clarifying that to her, home means “not where [her] husband and [she] and the baby live, but the place where [her] family is.” (Didion1) Her diction reflects the way she thinks about her home, with words such as “troublesome” that give off a negative connotation. Although she defines this place as her home, she expresses how she changes personalities and formalities in front of her parents and brother, which her husband is unfamiliar with. This transformation represents her familiarity with her family, whom she grew up with, or her childhood. However, since she is not in her childhood anymore, this familiarity is somewhat uncomfortable to her and her husband, whom Didion is more accustomed with. She, therefore, calls her “home” a “burden” (Didion2) where her source of tension and drama come from. Didion’s relationship with her husband reflects what she left behind at “home”. When Didion...
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...The Most Expensive Home The door thuds as you close it behind you on your way out to go to school, work, or wherever you are headed. You don’t have a second thought about what you’re leaving behind: your home. But have you ever thought about the significance of that word, “home”? In Joan Didion’s essay, “On Going Home”, Didion describes her experiences and thoughts on what defines her meaning of home. Didion uses many asyndetons and polysyndetons to emphasize her emotions and poses several rhetorical questions. Throughout the essay, it can be concluded that perhaps the generation that truly knows the meaning behind the word “home” is gradually disappearing. The contributing factors to such interpretation derived from Didion’s personal experiences with her direct family, her husband, and even her own daughter. Didion first sets her definition of home by clarifying that to her, home means “not where [her] husband and [she] and the baby live, but the place where [her] family is”. Her diction reflects the way she thinks about her home, with words such as “troublesome” that give off a negative connotation. Although she defines this place as her home, she expresses how she changes personalities and formalities in front of her parents and brother, which her husband is unfamiliar with. This transformation represents her familiarity with her family, whom she grew up with, or her childhood, and a vague description of what makes up her home. However, since she is not in her childhood...
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...According to the short essay “On Going Home” by Joan Didion, you can never go back home once you’ve acquired another. Didion explains generation gaps during the rocky path towards self-realization and acceptance while attending what we call life. She explains that there is a certain time in which people find themselves in what is described as a mid-life crisis- the realization that what was a familiar and comfortable past is now not the present. As teenagers we wait anxiously for the day we once and for all move out and be free to explore the world from a new mindset. However, in Didion's essay we see that there is a possibility of a new reality of what lies ahead once we step out of the house we grew up in. Her life now consists of dealing with her marriage, raising her daughter, and living in Los Angeles; Didion's persona throughout the essay is that she is often triggered by past experiences that lead her into a lingering sensation of nostalgia and uneasiness but yet hope and acceptance as well. Didion is obviously conflicted with the strong values she holds towards her childhood family life and new family life in LA, wishing to unite them in her marriage. Her husband is troubled to be with her family in this "home" on account of her turning into a different person around her family. It becomes apparent her husband was raised conflictingly and doesn't appreciate it when his wife falls victim to the ways of her family, ". . .which are difficult, oblique, deliberately inarticulate"...
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...Reactions to “Salvation” This short story by Langston Hughes left me confused. I still wonder if he was saved or not; whether “salvation” should be the title of the story or not. “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved.” (Salvation, 351). This is how the story begins, with a contradiction. I suppose this some what grabbed me in interest for a while, but I do have to admit that I never truly understood if Hughes was “saved” or not. It almost seemed to me that there were missing components, that this short story was maybe an excerpt from a larger story. I did not take the time to confirm this or not because I think if I knew for sure, it may take away from my true interpretation of this piece. I found this short story interesting. However, it was very difficult for me to connect with the author. The story was obviously written as recollection of a significant event in Hughes life when he was younger, perhaps because this particular event has affected him throughout his entire life. It is difficult for me to say for sure mostly because I have very little knowledge and understanding of church, religion, or being “saved” even means. So going off of my reaction purely from the way Hughes wrote it, I would have to say that I think he might have spent a long part of his life confused about what happened that day in the church. Hughes was very young this day where he was supposed to “see” Jesus. Being so young I figure he would have taken things...
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...Washington, and Anthony Butler ENG/125 August 30, 2011 Carla Clemmons Human Experience - Relationships Relationships are part of everyone’s life and they are what make people who they are. Relationships influence an individual’s way of thinking and the way the act. Relationships can also be difficult to maintain. Relationships are a way of connecting with people that are close to you and that you care about. Everyone needs or wants to be loved and cared about at some point in their life. Personally experiencing another can be interesting and an essential part of life. * The readings that give examples of the human experience of relationships are “A Doll’s House,” Henrik Isben, “Woman’s Work,” Julia Alvarez and “On Going Home,” Joan Didion. In the drama “A Doll’s House,” the relationship between a husband and wife is played out. This play demonstrates the conflict of a wife deceiving her husband. It also shows different ways a husband treats his wife. Throughout the play, Nora is referred to as her husband’s “little Skylark” (Isben, 1879). The title of the play symbolizes the way Nora is treated and how her husband thinks of her. She is thought of like a mindless doll that is living in her “doll house” The irony in this play is that while Nora’s husband thinks she does not have a mind of her own, she takes it upon herself to go out and take a loan out to get her family through a rough time. The time period in which this play was written was marked by males...
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...In “On Going Home,” Joan Didion writes about the differences between her family and her husband because they do not get along. Didion is saying that she feels like an outsider in her own home because she moved away and hers and the lifestyle of her family are not the same. Didion is nostalgic about what went on when she was younger, because she started to go through old pictures and junk. She is starting to get bored and missing her life in L.A. Her family still thinks of her as a child. The mother cannot giver daughter the same sense of home and family because of her disconnection. This essay spoke to me on various levels but the main reason why I chose it is because I could see myself in it. As a married woman who has chosen to live far from “home,” I felt connected to this piece and to Didion. In “On Going Home” Didion uses place in both ways. She discusses her childhood home, in the Central Valley of California, the specific place where she grew up and where her mother resides, and as she shares her memories and experiences with the location itself, she also gives up insight into her history, culture, what her family is/was like and how that place affected and still affects her emotionally and how it compares to the home she’s made with her husband and daughter in Los Angeles. Writing about place challenges us to rethink the way in which we view our own place—what we take for granted, how we choose to define ourselves, and what we mean to others.” Didion’s...
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...usual ways. The mentality of those in the country changed drastically. The Vietnam War created upheaval throughout college campuses and young people across the country. People appeared to be living in the moment, and not thinking about the next step in life. Joan Didion writes, “The center was not holding. It was a country of bankruptcy notices and public auctions announcements and commonplace reports of casual killings and misplaced children and abandoned homes…”(84) The economy was in a good state and it didn’t make much sense why the country was in this state of turmoil. Something was in the air; the culture changed. Teenagers were looking for a change in their lives and California was the place to go. California had this aura that portrayed both rebellion and excitement. Abandoned children and rebellious teenagers constantly flocked to different parts of California to experience some of this excitement everyone had been talking about. LSD and marijuana took over the scene; people were constantly living in an alternate state of mind. The sentiment of the people in California was that they were going to live life day to day and see where it takes them. Didion writes about a girl Debbie who left her home after having too many responsibilities, “’ everything’s in the future, you can’t pre-plan it. First we get jobs, then a place to live. Then, I dunno.”’(92) Kids everywhere abandoned their goals and focused on...
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...John Updike’s “The First Kiss” uses a great number of rhetorical devices such as monstrous metaphors, dreary to encouraging diction, and descriptive symbolism. These three rhetoric devices help Updike get his theme across that baseball is meant to be fun no matter how demanding it is to the players and the fans throughout the season. Although Updike’s ultimate theme was positive and optimistic, he used a combination of a gloomy and elevating tone to get to his theme. He started off with his gloomy and remorseful tone talking about the previous season and the Red Sox’s late season blunder falling to the Yankees but then he moves onto the fans preparing for the next season and the eagerness that is behind the “Fenway Faithful”. Updike uses words like “unraveling” and phrases like “dreadful days” and “so dank an opening day” to show that the Red Sox will “never get [the fans] to care again and to point out the downheartedness that filled the fans the previous season. However, by the end of the short essay, Updike says “this is fun” and that the sport is filled with “innumerable potential redemptions and curious disappointments”. Then when the two managers shake hands and the “many-headed monster booed furiously” at Zimmer, he just “laughed” and shrugged it off. Then Updike finally comes out to tell the reader the theme that baseball is just a game and no matter how serious it gets, it is meant to be fun. Even when many angry Boston Red Sox fans boo a single person at the start...
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...|[pic] |Syllabus | | |College of Humanities | | |ENG/125 Version 3 | | |Literature in Society | Copyright © 2010, 2008, 2006 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course introduces themes in literature and provides guided study and practice in reflecting on themes which describe the human experience across cultural and societal boundaries. The course includes readings from literature in different genres and cultures. Students study the literature in thematic units and are asked to make connections to their own lives and cultures. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: • University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. • Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies...
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