Exploring the Text

1. How would you describe the mood and tone of “On Self-Respect”? How, for example, do phrases such as “in a dry season” or “flavor of those particular ashes” (par. 1) set the essay’s mood and tone?

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - How would you describe the mood and tone of “On Self-Respect”? How, for example, do phrases such as “in a dry season” or “flavor of those particular ashes” (par. 1) set the essay’s mood and tone?
2. Joan Didion holds off for several paragraphs before she states her thesis. Find it and explain why you think she waited. Would you have placed it earlier? Why or why not?

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - Joan Didion holds off for several paragraphs before she states her thesis. Find it and explain why you think she waited. Would you have placed it earlier? Why or why not?
3. Explain what Didion means in paragraph 3 when she says that “to be driven back upon oneself is…rather like trying to cross a border with borrowed credentials.” How does the simile help explain what it means to be driven back upon oneself?

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - Explain what Didion means in paragraph 3 when she says that “to be driven back upon oneself is…rather like trying to cross a border with borrowed credentials.” How does the simile help explain what it means to be driven back upon oneself?
4. Paragraph 8 begins, “In one guise or another, Indians always are.” Always are what?

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - Paragraph 8 begins, “In one guise or another, Indians always are.” Always are what?
5. What do the topic sentences of most of Didion’s paragraphs have in common? What is the effect of that characteristic?

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - What do the topic sentences of most of Didion’s paragraphs have in common? What is the effect of that characteristic?
6. Who do you think is the audience for “On Self-Respect”? How do you know? Refer to the text to explain your answer.

   Question

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   Exploring the Text: - Who do you think is the audience for “On Self-Respect”? How do you know? Refer to the text to explain your answer.
7. In an Atlantic article, writer Caitlin Flanagan states, “to really love Joan Didion—to have been blown over by things like the smell of jasmine and the packing list she kept by her suitcase—you have to be female.” In addition, according to blogger Michelle Dean (The Awl, May 22, 2012), Didion once told her friend journalist Sara Davidson that she had thrown together “On Self-Respect” in two days to fill the space intended for another writer on the subject. Dean continues, “And there you have it: even then Didion was a writer who could produce something in 48 hours that your sophomore-year roommate wouldn’t quit quoting for years.” How does “On Self-Respect” hint at qualities that would engender the fierce loyalty that many (mostly women) feel for Didion and her work?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - In an Atlantic article, writer Caitlin Flanagan states, “to really love Joan Didion—to have been blown over by things like the smell of jasmine and the packing list she kept by her suitcase—you have to be female.” In addition, according to blogger Michelle Dean (The Awl, May 22, 2012), Didion once told her friend journalist Sara Davidson that she had thrown together “On Self-Respect” in two days to fill the space intended for another writer on the subject. Dean continues, “And there you have it: even then Didion was a writer who could produce something in 48 hours that your sophomore-year roommate wouldn’t quit quoting for years.” How does “On Self-Respect” hint at qualities that would engender the fierce loyalty that many (mostly women) feel for Didion and her work?