Thursday, February 19, 2009

"Slouching Towards Bethlehem"

Q: What is Joan Didion's attitude of the Hippie Movement in San Fransisco in the late 1960's? How does her tone, diction, and syntax exemplify her opinion?


A: The happy times of the Hippies during the 60's was covered in flowers,a fighting war in Vietnam, and peace movements against the war. Joan Didion's critical diction reenacts the happenings she experienced while in San Fransisco with words such as "desultory" and "hemorrhaging". She expresses how she feels about the whole movement and illiterates what experiences she encountered during her time there.


Her tone throughout the essay shows a disgusted attitude that these happenings could even occur in America and that nobody cared to make a change big enough to stop them. She opens up her essay with the massacre in Ireland and how British soldiers were willing to open fire on their fellow citizens, starting the Irish Revolution in 1916. Throughout the rest of her writing she just exemplifies her outrage towards the irresponsibilty of the people she encounters and interviews. She tells of her MANY encounters with drugs of all kinds. How common and unsecretive people were with what they had. She also expresses her disagreement with the expression of "free love" and how willing people were to flirt and express themselves with so many different individuals.