Santa Ana Winds In Joan Didion's Los Angeles Notebook

Didion personifies the wind as almost an unknown epidemic. Similar to when an unknown disease goes viral, all walks of life are affected. Didion clearly states how teachers, students, doctors, to physicists, to generally everyone becomes unhappy and uncomfortable during the winds. She does not write of how the wind caused fire to ravage the shrublands, but she writes of the symptoms it inflicts on the people. Didion mentions all the after effects of the wind and the harm it can do like inflict paranoia. She mentions how the fear-stricken victims of southern California are paranoid like her neighbor that refuses to leave the house and her husband who roams with a machete. Didion’s personification of the wind focuses on a fearful and distant light.

In the writing Fremont High School by Jonathan Kozol he discusses the reality of urban schools and how they are unable to obtain the proper education. At Fremont High School children are not always able to eat during their lunch period, the proper education needed for college is not obtained, the school reflects institutional discrimination, and the building is overcrowded limiting course offerings for children.

The book “The Other America”, written by Michael Harrington, describes poverty in America in the 1950s and 1960s, when America became one of the most affluent and advanced nations in the world. The book was written in 1962, and Harrington states that there were about 50,000,000 (about 25% of the total population) poor in America at that time. The author did extensive research with respect to the family income levels to derive the poverty numbers, and used his own observations and experiences to write this book. This book addresses the reasons for poverty, the nature of poverty, the culture of poverty, the blindness of Middle Class America with respect to poverty, and the responsibility of all Americans in addressing the issue of poverty in America.

Schools lacking social utilities that are needed to promote the academic status of its students is an issue. Whether these benefits should be kept opened or closed is widely debated in most societies. The condition of such schools is an important issue because it determines the future of its students academically. Some issues facing schools include social, public and economic issues; this essay will consider arguments concerning the social, public and economical causes of this problem through the use of Jonathan Kozol 's "FREMONT HIGH SCHOOL", which was written to expose the poor conditions in Fremont high school and seek in the improvement of the school system.

Joan Didion in her essay, “The Santa Ana” and Linda Thomas in her essay, “Brush Fire” describes the Santa Ana in two opposing stands with similar moves. Didion's purpose in writing her essay for the Santa Ana is to inform her readers. She informs them about the Santa Ana, the effect the winds have on human behavior, and how they have to live with the Santa Ana. Thomas writes her essay to engage readers on the Santa Ana’s effect on brushes. She gives details on how the Santa Ana causes natural brush fires and the beauty it is able to create in the aftermath.

“ Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it ” ( Charles Dudley Warner ). In the novel Tangerine, by Edward Bloor, the main character, Paul, moves from Huston, Texas to Tangerine, Florida. He comes looking for a fresh start and a new life. Paul makes new friends and new enemies. When he comes to Tangerine, he learns valuable lessons, such as how to act or when to say something. In Tangerine, Bloor uses the motif of weather to show that man cannot control nature, no matter how strong they are.

She says, “Surgeons are said to watch the wind because blood doesn't clot normally during Foehn”(Didion). When she says this, she builds credibility by using a trusted person in this case a surgeon to prove her statement that Santa Ana changes behavior in someone. She also states that an “Israeli physicist discovered that not only during such winds, but for the ten or twelve hours which precede them, the air carries an unusually high ratio of positive to negative ions.”(Didion) The use of a “Physicist” makes readers believe that the wind changes people’s mind and behavior because physicist are professionals that study the behavior of the material Universe. Didion make her statement credible by appealing to

She is described to be independent and have ambition. She is affected with the wind and Petry describes how the wind has blocked Johnson’s vision. She states “ Each time she thought she had the sign in focus, the wind pushed it away from her so that she wasn’t certain whether it said three rooms or two rooms.” One would probably wonder why Petry uses such precise selection of detail to show the chaos of the wind. However, the wind represents a deeper meaning. In the 1940’s (in which this piece was written) African Americans were faced with having to deal with racial discrimination. Because Lutie Johnson is an African American woman, she is targeted to have her opportunities taken away from her. The wind represents the racial discrimination in which African Americans faced living in the urban setting. The urban setting is also quite significant because African Americans were forced to live in urban settings to be set apart from the rest of people. The wind is explained to have blinded Lutie when she was trying to look for another place to live which is significant because it represents that racial tensions tried to strip any opportunity and liberty African American sought for. In the end Lutie finds a comfortable place in which she can live and that clearly that one can achieve great things despite their

¨There was a law against luke. Not him personally everyone like him, kids who were born after their parents already had two babies (pg 6)¨. Would you like a law against you? Among the hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix clearly shows that dictatorship is horrible. In this novel Luke is not allowed to leave the house or be seen. Luke leaves the house in cover and meets a girl the same as him she can't go anywhere so she tries to convince luke to rebel to be like regular people with her but he is to nervous. Luke shows the character traits of brave, jealousy and adventurous as he hides in the shadows.

From “The Other America,” in Major Problems by Michael Harrington is a document that tells of the poverty present in America that is often skillfully and unintentionally concealed and also speaks of Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty and briefly of how poverty rose during the Reagan administration. After Johnson’s declaration of war on poverty, there was significant change regarding the climate of the social, economic, and political in the America of those times. And while Johnson’s countless social programs helped decrease poverty immensely, it also left a huge number drowning in it still. Later Reagan’s administration would cite George Gilder on the fact that welfare did not reduce poverty but increase it to explain why the levels of poverty rose during the first few months of Reagan’s administration. Democrats and liberals would argue against this and say that poverty

What would be the perfect job? If one is truly asking, the answer will change multiple times based on the person asked. A career path can be perfect to an individual, but horrific to another. For example, I could never survive as a fitness trainer, because fitness is not for me unless, I’m fitness—whole pizza in my tummy. The Knife by Richard Selzer explains how being a doctor for the right one is an extortionary experience. For some the sight of blood or even getting a shot is an unpleasant experience. But on a smaller scale, some may assume that being a server is awful.

The United States was full of prosperity in the 1950s. The standard of living was higher that it had been in years, and many people were living in luxury. Although there were many who were enjoying the lives they lived, there were also many Americans who were trapped living well below the standard of living. Michael Harrington shed light on this situation when he published The Other America in 1962. In his expose’, Harrington exposed how 40 to 50 million American citizens were living in poverty, and that to most Americans these people were invisible. He expressed how the lifestyle of people living in poverty was so different from those who were not that it created a “culture” of poverty. Harrington believed

In a postmodern world it is worth contemplating in what we can put our faith. Does culture, religion, or God merit our trust? Or is this a world of mechanical and biological evolutionary processes void of any meaning and purpose? The Sunset Limited, “a novel in dramatic form,” by Cormac McCarthy, is a dialogue between two persons who approach each other from opposite worlds to answer these questions. Black, a born-again believer and ex-con, and White, a nihilistic college professor, attempt to determine whether belief in God is viable in this world and if life is worth living. Despite Black’s efforts to convince him otherwise, White remains a Depressed Self who denies God’s existence, affirms his view of the world as deranged, and leaves to complete his suicide.

In literature, weather is a mechanism used to enhance and create mood. In the novel Life of Pi, it is used successfully in this way. However, Yann Martel’s use of weather in the story also portrays the overwhelming commotion in Pi’s subconscious as he undergoes 227 days at sea. The parallels between the weather and Pi’s journey of transcending his safety net, his normalcy, and his childhood are evident throughout the novel. Weather is a representation of the wholehearted connection Pi has with nature, as it often accurately represents his thoughts and emotions. Yann Martel uses weather as a medium to encapsulate the reader and put them in the novel, but also to convey the dire circumstances of Pi’s mind.

This just shows how weather can affect people's moods. At first the storm seemed exciting; getting to leave work and school early sounded like a good thing. However, throughout the day, little things happened that made it no longer be so exciting. And eventually, that excitement was gone and it was replaced by