Day 5: The Chase & Santa Ana

Writing: Tell me about a time when you were chased or when you were chasing someone/something.

Discussion

In small groups --> review the homework questions. Identify SAS.

In large group

1. Santa Ana

• Ending: is this all of LA? California? Humanity?
• How does Didion use objectivity to appeal to emotion?
• How does Didion establish her credibility and truth?
• What's the tone of this piece?
• Do the Santa Ana's change people who expose a truth about people?
• How does Didion exclude and/or include her audience in her work?
• How dos she make the regional universal?

2. The Chase

• How does Dillard balance her youthful tone and adult reflection? Why is the success of this essay dependent on that balance?
• What's the So What? How do we reconcile the ending?
• is the man a placeholder, something against which to expose a personal truth?
• What's the tone of this piece?
• Paragraph 6: notice the structure
• Paragraph 20: does hyperbole work for or against the narrative?

What would you want to steal or borrow from these pieces? Ideas? Structural pieces? Something stylistic?