DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

The Writing of Simple Sentences in The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

            In the beginning of Chapter one, the italicized words, “Life changes fast.  Life changes in the instant.” (pg. 1) introduce the plot of the book by getting down to the point: things have changed for Didion.  Through much of her dialogue throughout the rest of the book, it’s revealed that she is very much enveloped in her own world, without the tangible and intangible aspects of the former dependency and love that she had from the relationship of her and her husband to guide her.  Without the world that she outlines throughout the book that she once knew, she leaves reality and begins this magical year of thinking: “This was the beginning of my year of magical thinking.” (pg. 33).  Even though in this metadiscursive burst “Life changes fast.  Life changes in an instant,” she acknowledges that life changes fast, the whole book shows that her whole life slows down, even stops, when she freezes time and revisits all of these memories of her husband, John, and her daughter, Quintana.  Throughout this paper it will be explained how Didion’s style is best defined by her creation of simple sentences, and in these sentences there can be found the use of repetition, the non-linearity of the sequence of events, an urgent, surrealistic tone, the creation of a less intimate tenor with the use of medical terminology, the establishment of the archetypal situation through diction, and the portrayal of feeling by simple diction. 

            Rhetorically, there is the use of the repetition of words throughout the book, where sentences follow sentences and phrases follow phrases where Didion repeats words in the beginning of these sentences and phrases.  These repetitious words end up showing different elements of the essay, such as the subject of the book, as is on page 7; “This is my attempt to make sense of the period that followed…. about death, about illness, about probability and luck, about good fortune and bad….”  Here the repetition of the word “about” may make the text seem simple, even overly simple, but this way of using words repetitiously to show contrast and similarity at the same time is very interesting and skillful.  This way of explaining a series of things to the reader is almost poetic, and seems out of place for an essay, and this defines Didion’s style as unique and artistic.  The repetition of words defines the style by being of spoken voice, where she repeats things, lists them, as if she was trying to make this list seem aesthetically pleasing. 

            Another aspect of her writing of perfectly written, simple sentences is her use of keeping track of things by dates.  At first the non-linearity of events may be confusing to the reader, but still the way that Didion writes out the dates of events makes it simpler for the reader to understand the sequence of events.  Ironically the first date written is “May 20th, 2004,” (pg. 3), a date that passes some time after her husband dies.  Chapter two begins with the fragment, “December 30, 2003, a Tuesday.” (pg. 9).  This reads like a date written at the top of a diary entry, and in this way it creates an emotional tone, because this is how Didion begins to explain the sequence of events of her husband’s death.  On page 11, there is the use of the fragment again, “Someone else.”  This is how Didion shows her disbelief of the death of her husband.  This simple sentence is one of many that creates a tone of urgency.  This tone is dominant throughout the book, where she explains the sequence of events of her husband’s death in a more abstract manner.  Also her metadiscursive bursts have a tone of urgency, for example, on pg. 21; “If they were here that long does it mean that he was alive?”  The reader may interpret a sense of urgency in her metadiscursive synaptic bursts like this one, because Didion seems unable to accept the reality of her husband’s death, and to the reader this regression from reality creates the need for a stronger sense of reality. 

            This absence of reality becomes even more apparent throughout the book with other instances of the dialogue of Didion; for example, on pg. 23, Didion asks herself; “What did her mean?  Did he know he would not write the book?”  These two sentences form two paragraphs, allowing these sentences to be interpreted in an even simpler manner.  Then follows a paragraph composed completely of questions where Didion further questions herself, and her husband, about the sequence of events that led to his death.  Here it may be interpreted that she invites the reader to take part in her self-interrogation, creating an intimate personal level of discourse.  This tenor is intimate yet distant at the same time because of the surreal sense of the meaning of the interrogation.  There are many levels of functional tenor of discourse that can be interpreted; one being to explain, where Didion tries to explain to the reader her state of mind during and after her husband’s death.  Also there is the functional tenor of discourse, to convince; to convince the reader the rationality of these irrational ideas.  The simplicity of the sentences gives the reader the ability to take this in, in a more effective way than if these thoughts were explained in a more complex manner.  These metadiscursive bursts provide a spontaneous mode of discourse, where Didion’s thoughts penetrate the narration of events abruptly.

            Throughout the book there is the rhetorical use of the repetition of phrases in italics, and these express the emotions of the characters.  For one, Didion repeats the simple sentences, “You’re safe.  I’m here.” (pg. 97) to her daughter when she sees her in the hospital.  This simplicity is effective in the way that it shows the reader a mother’s love for her daughter in a time of crisis.  Instead of trying to explain what Didion is going through emotionally in a more straightforward manner, she repeats these words.  The reader is left to interpret and sense an archetypal situation, where a mother comforts her daughter with words of love.  Another instance in the book like this, where the love of Didion and her husband is very simply expressed in an effective manner, is through the phrase, “More than one more day.” (pg. 177).  Quintana’s father says it to Quintana, Joan whispers it in the absence of her dead husband, and Quinatana says it in church the day her father’s ashes are cremated.  This act of repeating a simple phrase creates an emotional profile of the love and relationship of the family which the narration revolves around.

            Some of Didion’s diction and sentences are so simple that they almost seem insufficient.  One example of this is on page 44, with the sentence, “Information was control.”  Though this sentence may at first seem very simple, it contains gestalt-like sparseness in the way that it gets down to the fact that one way that helped Didion to deal with her grief was reading literature.  Then follows the description of what she read to deal with her grief, and the complexity of the lines of literature contrast with the simplicity of Didion’s diction.  The reader is left to interpret the literature in a way that relates to what Didion feels when she is grieving her husband’s death.  It’s obvious that the literature is about death, but the way in which Didion uses the literature to cope is a unique and essential element of the narration of the book, because she does it alone, yet it is one of the instances in the book where the reader is the ablest to interpret Didion’s thoughts, in the way that she relates to the literature. 

            There are some sentences that Didion writes that don’t follow the simple style of the rest of the book.  Many of these sentences are contained in Chapter 5, with the medical language that Didion writes to explain her daughter’s hospital stay and her physical state while she is sick.  There is this medical jargon, for example, on page 64; “Her pulse was elevated, 150-plus…. Her white count was almost zero…. She was given Ativan, then Demerol.”  Although the reader may not understand a lot off the jargon that is written at this place in the book, and some others where Didion explains the physical state of her husband and her daughter, the point of the jargon isn’t to be understood by the reader.  Instead it seems that Didion’s intent is to demonstrate the tone of the situation that she experiences.  This creates a different personal tenor than is apparent throughout most of the book, a much less intimate one, where the reader is less acquainted with the author.  Interestingly, on page 62, within this same chapter, there are three simple sentences, metadiscursive bursts, that have a less elevated style than the surrounding material; “We had noted the numbers on the respirator.  We had held her swollen hand.  We still don’t know which way this is going, one of the ICU doctors had said.”  These sentences, like some other sentences throughout the book, are their own separate paragraphs, so that their italic rhetoric stands out.  All of this medical, less sentimental jargon surrounds these three sentences, and the reader is left to interpret the emotional state of Didion and her husband in the midst of all of the medical complication that is taking place.  This portrays how the emotion of the characters in a narration is often more significant than other components of the narration. 

            One of the most interesting elements of the book is what is going on in Didion’s mind throughout all of the happenings surrounding her husband’s death and her daughter’s illness.  One way in which Didion portrays her thinking is through the concept of a “vortex,” as is written on page 107; “I had first noticed what I came to know as “the vortex effect,” in January….”  Didion explains her thoughts as things that suck her into this vortex, to the point where she can’t get out of it, so that the vortex controls her and envelops her.  These types of thoughts guide the non-narrative elements of the text that create a tone that is surreal and almost disturbing.  Some places throughout the text lack the point of narration of events almost completely, and seem to exist so that Didion can explain her sorrow, such as the following sentence on page 117; “I could have been in Cleveland.  Yet.”  These two sentences (actually a sentence and a fragment) are two paragraphs.  They create a tone that portrays Didion as immersed in her own consciousness, and these thoughts are parallel to the narration of a story. Didion’s way of explaining her distress is unique because she is using simple sentences with simple meaning, yet the reader understands what she is feeling.

            In conclusion, Didion’s style can be defined well by her establishment of perfectly etched sentences throughout her book.  Her use of repetition, the non-linearity of the sequence of events, the creation of an urgent and surrealistic tone, the use of medical terminology to create less of an intimate tenor, the use of the archetypal situation created by diction, and the use of simple diction to portray feeling, all create a narration perfected by the writing of simple sentences.  Didion guides the reader through her thoughts and journey by creating the simplest narration possible, though there is still depth to the story.

           

           

             

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.