Nature can sometimes become spiritual and personal. In the case of Joan Didion and his views on the Santa Ana, he believes that these winds makes people act certain ways, and their feelings are inexplicable. Although many suppose that their actions are caused as a result of the amount of positive and negative ions in the atmosphere, there are other reasons beyond that, at least this is what Didion believes.
He introduces the Santa Ana winds by using tone and diction. His tone here seems serious and intrigued. Didion uses specific descriptions to give the reader an overwhelming feeling of awkwardness and anxiety. "There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension"(lines 1-2). His use of words here are made to give more introduction as to what the winds contribute in this society, and again, this gives more effect to the reader. .
Didion uses plenty of detail and imagery to convey his ideas even further. He tells of his neighbor, a woman who does not leave her house. It is always dark outside at night and there Is not a single light shining. Her husband goes outside with a machete in search of trespassers or rattlesnakes. This is just to make known to the reader what happens as a cause of the winds. He uses imagery giving a distasteful picture of an isolated beach and what happens when the winds hit. "One woke in the night troubled not only by the peacocks screaming in the olive trees but by the eerie absence of surf the sky had a yellow cast"(lines 20-24). This is not a pretty picture, but rather spooky and mysterious. Didion continues his views by quoting Chandler, who said that anything can happen on nights like that. .
Supposedly, scientists say that there are logical explanations for all this. They claim that the ions contribute to the effect of the Santa Ana winds. Although this is a good assumption, Didion continues to reassure the reader that there is much more behind the tales.
