Essay on Joan Didion's "Los Angeles Notebook"

A gentle spring breeze passing through the town does not harm but soothes and calms people. It is like a friendly hello, a greeting to those it passes. When the wind becomes angry and harsh, the affects of it on people alters also. In Joan Didion's essay "Los Angeles Notebook", she conveys her views of the Santa Ana wind as fierce by describing its effects on nature, humans, and the world. Nature, humans and the world have been affected by this dangerous wind. The natural ways of nature have been changed by the Santa Ana winds, while people are also showing negative effects by this wind. This type of wind caused much damage in all parts of the world.

This great Santa Ana wind disrupted the balance of nature and negatively affected Mother Nature and her animals. Didion's word choice helped her convey her opinion of the Santa Ana wind. Didion states in her essay that "one woke in the night...by the peacocks screaming in the olive trees..." Her usage of the word "screaming" emphasizes the horror of the Santa Ana winds. The peacocks wanted to flee from this wind, but because they cannot fly, all they can do is scream and cry out. The ocean was also acting strangely, as Didion described, "the Pacific turned ominously glossy during a Santa Ana period..." Usually when one thinks of the ocean and the sea, one thinks of the crashing waves. Though the ocean before the Santa Ana winds is very calm and still. Didion describes the sea to be ominous which foreshadows the omens of the wind. This proves the saying of, "The calm before the storm." Not only are the animals and features of Earth being disturbed, but also the air and the atoms are in disorder. Didion says that the "air carries an unusually high ration of positive to negative ions." The Santa Ana disturbs the natural ways of the ions, which also foreshadows some great change will be happening in the atmosphere. The natural cycles of nature is negatively affected by this great dangerous wind.

Just like nature, people's lives are also negatively affected by the Santa Ana wind. Before the wind even comes, people will be able to see the changes in nature and deep inside them, they realize that something horrible is about to happen. Didion says, "The baby frets. The maid sulks." Usually when a baby starts to fuss and cry, something must be troubling the baby, which foreshadows that some horrific thing will be or is already happening. Crying and sulking are only the least severe reactions from people. As described by Didion, some "Indians would throw themselves into the sea when the bad wind blew." The wind is so horrifying that people are more willing to suicide than to experience the wind. The terrors of the wind do not stop here. It is also compared to wives slitting their husbands' throats, " 'Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' neck. Anything can happen.' " This demonstrates the wildness and fierceness of the wind, because it can be compared to something so barbaric as a wife killing her husband. People's actions are mechanistic with the Santa Ana wind.

The Santa Ana wind isn't the only wind that causes this much damage. In fact, it is only one wind in a whole category of the foehn winds. Foehn winds blow throughout the whole entire world causing damage everywhere and to everyone. Didion says, "Whenever foehn wind blows, doctors hear headaches and nausea and allergies, about 'nervousness' and 'depression.'" People would not usually report to say they have headaches from nervousness and depression, but because of the horror from this wind, people are feeling nervous and depressed. These foehn winds are so strong that even "blood does not clot normally..." People's blood clotting normally is very important because if it does not, then it is very easy for humans to die from just a small cut. When blood does not clot normally, it is a seriously harmful situation to humans because they can be extremely close to death just because of a small paper cut. When the winds are described to do that much harm, it truly shows the horrors of the foehn wind. The foehn winds affect not only Los Angeles but also everyone around the whole entire world.

This Santa Ana wind affects the people and places around it. Even before the wind blows, it already caused many unfixable damages. The category if foehn wins are so severe and fierce that people suicide and birds scream to try to get away from it. Didion affectively conveys her view of the wind as fierce and dangerous through the effects it has on everyone and everything in its surroundings.