Didion's recount of going home for her daughter's birthday is one that's emotionally charged. If the goal of the text is to relate to the audience and penetrate her feelings through words, it is very effective. Didion details situations and events that relate with the audience and showcase her mood consistently throughout the text.
Didion utilizes situations to relate and connect with the audience frequently throughout the story. "A white cake, strawberry-marshmallow ice cream, a bottle of champagne" can take one back to a party in his or her memory (Didion 3). Going to visit her great aunts, where they "recall an anecdote about a relative last seen in 1948" can have the audience reflecting back on their family: when was the last time his or her family member was seen? When had he or she last visited family (Didion 2). Didion's masterful use of interjecting anecdote-like flashbacks throughout the text is a subtle reminder of the past, one that can conjure up long forgotten memories and invoke a …show more content…
The piece carries a heavy wistful yet melancholic mood to it as she sifts through photographs and letters that detail a childhood shrouded in deep feelings. When she writes about how "[my] brother refers to [my] husband, in his presence, as 'Joan's husband,'" it evokes another feeling of sympathy for a woman whose family is less than welcoming to a spouse (Didion 1). The excerpt where she confides to us that "[I] was almost thirty years old before [I] could talk with my family on the telephone without crying after [I] hung up" sends out more feelings of sympathy, along with tones of regret and sadness (Didion 1). Didion's careful use and detail of situations effortlessly bring across her feelings, ones that, in turn, can make a reader feel the same way, a telltale sign of effectiveness in