An Evaluation of Joan Didion’s On Self
Respect
by Carey
Score 6.0
Not only did I find Didion’s essay to be a tedious and
meandering read but it is also my opinion that the reading had
an almost schizophrenic justification to it. Multiple readings
of this essay were required in order to ascertain what the
colorful illustrations and seemingly unexplainable examples she
chose to more fully express her points had to do with the
intended subject matter. Admired as a stylistic masterpiece,
some people find her writing charming. That was not my
experience. And it isn’t that I disagree with Didion’s core
thesis. Quite the opposite, I concur with the majority of the
conclusions she reaches. What I don’t see eye to eye on with
Joan Didion is her use of style as the basis for her argument.
Her style is to jolt her reader by the juxtaposition of the
examples she employs to prove her point. Her forceful
personality argues, “listen to me, see it my way, change your
mind”; however, my preference is to hear the argument based on
clear and convincing evidence and then decide for my self if it
is worth it’s weight.
My battle with Didion and this particular work is that the
emotional tone throughout is flashy and obvious but missing that
connection to the reading. Didion has been celebrated as one of
the leading practitioners of a new kind of highly wrought
personal journalism. This is well illustrated by the use of her
personal testimony that “innocence ends when one is stripped
of the delusion that one likes oneself.” She leaves space for
thousands of similarly disaffected readers to enter her prose
and passionately identify with it. I find that statements such
as these are both frustrating and amazing. Anyone can state an
opinion but a good writer presents compelling evidence or
examples by which to prove their point. Maybe I am in a certain
minority of readers who are not impressed by her dolorous tone
or her uncoupled connection between what happens in her head and
heart that she feels is important enough to include in her
definition and evaluation of self-respect.
Sometimes her tricks appear to be merely cheap, such as her
use of Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan to emphasis the
compulsion to please others, but in fact some could be
considered destructive or malicious. One analogy I found to be
particularly distasteful was her declaration that “people with
self-respect have the courage of their mistakes. They know the
price of things” and then comparing these people to
adulterers. The use of adultery as her persuasive point is
offensive. Does she mean to imply that adulterers exhibit
self-respect if they do not confess or seek forgiveness? Does
having the courage to make mistakes or knowing the price of
things relieve the person of making a poor moral choice? We
should each have our own, unique definition of what is right and
wrong but Didion’s use of adultery to make her point seems
irresponsible and irrational.
While the reader is left to contemplate the connection she is
trying to make and within the same paragraph, she goes on to
state “people with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a
kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character.”
How can she jump between absolving poor life choices to
ascribing the quality of character to an adulterer? What is
tragically absurd is that by using adultery in this analogy she
calls more attention to its justification than to building on
the point she is making. Didion’s choice of the use of
adultery in this passage serves to inflame the reader driving
away the connection to the worthy conclusion.
While it is true that examples and illustrations provide an
emotional dimension that can help bolster a point it appears
that Didion relies too heavily on this tactic to drive home her
position. For example, paragraph 9 states “That kind of
self-respect is a discipline, a habit of mind that can never be
faked but can be developed, trained, coaxed forth.” She
follows that impressive statement by recounting how she learned
to put her head in a paper bag as an antidote to crying. By
explaining the psychological effects of the action she takes so
that she can control her crying she loses the coherence of the
point she is trying to make in supporting the argument of this
paragraph. By inserting this odd image she loses the weight of
her important statement because she does not link them together.
By looking hard at the entire paragraph its argument wilts
because there is just enough truth in it to slip by unnoticed.
Glaring examples such as this one are littered throughout this
essay and they should not be allowed to slip by without comment.
Her bag of tricks or techniques can be learned; I don’t
know why they have evoked so much wonder. The way this writer
deals with presenting her view is by the use of strong style as
argument and for Didion surface only matters. Maybe I am in the
certain minority of readers who are not impressed by the
presence of colorful but weak analogies, arguments with
questionable premises, hasty generalizations, or her unfair
emotional appeals.
The main reason I don’t care for this essay is that after
reading and rereading her essay I find it hard to see precisely
what her reasons and arguments are for the need to understand
and nurture our self-respect. The value of this essay could be
strengthened if not allowed to follow a path led by Didion’s
need to make it a point of honor to struggle for meaning. I do
not require that a novelist eradicate all mystery but once you
have my attention take the opportunity to lead me on that path
even if we end up at different destinations. Indeed anything
worth knowing or having has a price and a unique meaning to
everyone but Didion does not go far enough out there while she
has us as her captive readers.
While I do not agree with the overall approach that Didion
has taken in her attempt to share her opinion and influence
others regarding her position on self-respect, I do agree with
the conclusion I believe she is trying to make regarding the
differences between self-respect and reputation. The definition
of self-respect given by Didion as a certain toughness or
character might also be applied to reputation except that
motivation and intent need to be taken into consideration when
placing these two values side by side. To live to have a good,
or bad, reputation takes out the personal value of the deeds.
The person didn’t act or behave in a certain way because it
was their intent: it was for the fulfillment of the reputation
that they acted. The reputation becomes the receiver of the deed
not the person or situation. To live with self-respect
regardless of reputation shows the true intent of the deed;
therefore, the deed becomes more important than the doer.
Self-scrutiny is required to examine our true motivations for
our actions so that what we intend to do is what is a true
representation of our best life and not just what we want to be
known for.
When one compares the writings of Didion with Frederick
Douglas and his essay Resurrection, there is similarity
in that they both had precise moments in which they recognize
the need to establish their self worth. Douglass’ defiance of
Mr. Covey and Didion’s rejection at the sorority are equally
significant because it was the motivating factor that spurred on
their personal growth. While they seemingly have nothing in
common, their experiences point to the fact that anyone can be
open to change at any time. Even though it would seem that
Douglass had more at stake as a slave who knows where Didion
would be in life if she hadn’t accepted that she needed to
make adjustments: her slavery could have taken another form.
An Evaluation of Didion's On Self-Respect
by
Karilyn
Reputation is a catalyst in the decline of self-respect.
Worrying about what others might think or how they perceive
oneself clouds the ability to think, act, and make decisions for
oneself. Becoming so consumed with what others expect from
oneself causes self-deception, a hiding of oneself, a burying of
the true self for the beneficial perception of others. Although
Didion’s view on what one can get away with while still
maintaining self-respect may be questionable, even shocking to
some, when examined further her assessments of what self-respect
is, the pitfalls of self-deception, and the benefits of risking
reputation, illustrate the freedom or paralization of oneself
while defending the pursuit of self-respect as more significant
than reputation.
Didion’s bold and “in your face” approach as an author
allows her readers to see her point of view clearly and without
question. In her essay, “On Self-Respect,” Didion’s candid
tactics of truth grab her readers’ attention and keeps it
throughout the essay. She charges the reader with the reality of
“The tricks that work on others count for nothing in that very
well-lit back alley where one keeps assignations with oneself:
no winning smiles will do here, no prettily drawn list of good
intentions” (p. 63). As difficult as it may be for some to
admit to these games played with themselves, Didion’s curt
approach forces the readers to examine such actions. While some
may argue this method of writing may deter or even offend her
readers, it is simply Didion’s self-characterization of her
writing. In her own words she describes this style as coaxing
her readers to “listen to me, see it my way, change your mind”
(p.62). This authoritative approach is not only creative, it is
a necessity when trying to convince her audience that
self-respect is more important than reputation.
Self-respect, according to Didion, “has nothing to do with
reputation” (p.63). Looking superficially at this statement,
one could argue self-respect and reputation have everything to
do with each other; however, they would be wrong. Didion’s
opening paragraphs explain a time when she had “misplaced”
her self-respect, describing herself as a typical disappointed
college student who was not invited to join the college sorority
Phi Beta Kappa, setting the stage for her argument that
self-respect is more essential to one’s life than is
reputation, while at the same time connecting with her readers
and making herself human. She continues her essay by insisting
self-respect “has nothing to do with the face of things, but
concerns instead a separate peace, a private reconciliation”
(p.63). This statement reinforces Didion’s argument that one
cannot have self-respect if one is caught up in faking out those
around her. Where would the civil rights movement be had Martin
Luther King not been willing to push beyond the acceptance or
“maintenance of the status quo?” (392). In his letter to the
clergymen King writes, “We know through painful experience
that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it
must be demanded by the oppressed” (p.392). Had King been
concerned with “the face of things” he would not have gone
to Birmingham to confront those who were causing such oppression
to the black community. He knew it would be very possible for
him to end up in jail; but because he had self-respect, and as
Didion would characterize, he was not worried about what would
happen to his reputation if he were arrested.
While Didion clearly holds self-respect above reputation
throughout her essay, she also undoubtedly identifies the act of
placing concern for reputation over self-respect as danger to
the individual. Martin Luther King recognized this danger as he
confronted the clergymen, who were more concerned with their
reputation than their self-respect, for publicly condemning King
for his “’unwise and untimely’” “direct-action
campaign” (pp. 389, 392). Didion would refer to these
clergymen as being “an unwilling audience of one to an
interminable documentary that details one’s failings, both
real and imagined, with fresh footage spliced in for every
screening,” while King would refer to them as “lukewarm”
and unable to commit themselves to the cause because they were
afraid of losing their, as Didion would say, reputation (pp. 63,
395). Reputation is not what these men have lost; they have lost
their self-respect.
In her essay, Didion successfully defends her stand on
self-respect versus reputation by explaining the danger of
self-deception. The men of cloth that King writes from the
Birmingham jail are examples of people caught up in a whirlwind
of self-deception. They are so busy trying to maintain their
public image that they fail to see the importance of King’s
demonstration, and perhaps their own beliefs. As a result, these
men are sacrificing their self-respect and deceiving themselves
in order to save face with popular opinion. According to Didion,
“self-deception remains the most difficult deception”
(p.63). She illustrates this point poignantly by discussing the
act of adultery. At first, her approach may seem shockingly
immoral; but if read carefully, her point is well received.
Didion challenges her readers with the thought of acknowledging
one’s failings and taking responsibility for one’s actions
as another way of maintaining self-respect. “If they choose to
commit adultery, they do not then go running, in an access of
bad conscience, to receive absolution from the wronged parties;
nor do they complain unduly of the unfairness, the undeserved
embarrassment, of being named co-respondent” (p.64). By owning
up to who one is instead of hiding from oneself and by standing
up for what one believes in instead of projecting the popular
public opinion demonstrates what Didion equates as self-respect.
Didion also characterizes people with self-respect by
emphasizing, “People who respect themselves are willing to
accept the risk…” that a situation may not turn out the way
they plan and they accept the outcome anyway (p.64). Such risk
may be difficult for one to pursue; however, it is an integral
part of achieving and maintaining self-respect. Douglass
demonstrates this pursuit of risk in his essay “Resurrection.”
Douglass describes in detail his plight as an abused slave and
reflects on the risk he took to stand up to Mr. Covey, even in
the face of death. In his concluding remarks Douglass reflects,
“It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived
with me a sense of my own manhood. …and inspired me again with
a determination to be free” (p.52). Didion describes such a
risk as “recognizing that anything worth having has its price”
and Douglass, as well as King, exhibit their willingness to
ultimately risk their lives and reputations in order to maintain
their self-respect. While it would have been much easier for
King to stay home and not confront the segregation in
Birmingham, he would have been denying everything he believed in
and fought for throughout his life. He did not care what others
thought, he was not concerned with the “reputation” he might
have if imprisoned. The clergymen, on the other hand, are the
antithesis of King and Douglass, displaying their ability to
play the role of someone they are not, “curiously determined
to live out…their [others’] false notions of us [them]”
(p.65).
Although Didion’s opinion throughout her essay may seem
ruthless to the causal reader, she uses this callous approach to
reach readers who are guilty of putting more effort into
maintaining a good reputation than those who strive for
self-respect. She writes this essay to encourage, not to
discourage, readers in adopting her opinion on the meaning of
self-respect, as well as to recognize its dissimilarity to the
meaning of reputation. Didion clearly defines self-respect as
allowing oneself to see the failings of one’s life, as well as
taking responsibility for one’s actions, regardless of the
consequences. Self-respect is not worrying about what others
think about oneself, but how the individual sees one’s own
personal character and acts accordingly. King and Douglass are
admirable examples of people who possess self-respect. They
encompass Didion’s definition of self-respect and are examples
of individuals who do not worry about their reputations. While
one may argue the importance of reputation, there is no denying
the enormity of pursuing self-respect.