Sinara Isoyan
Expository Writing (Section D)
Instructor: Christian Garbis
Date: October 30, 2016
Critical Analysis of Didion’s Essay
In her essay Goodbye to all that, Joan Didion depicts her fascinating journey of living in
and leaving New York once and for all. The strikingly descriptive essay explores New York’s
charm and magnetism for young artists, and Didion describes how many aspects of her life
changed in New York, particularly her life and personality. Joan Didion does a fantastic job in
her narrative essay, as she clearly communicates her thoughts and ideas, her overwhelming love
for New York and her inability to live there. For her, New York always seemed like a temporary
place, and once her “golden rhythm” was broken, she could not continue living there. She argued
that it was a place for younger people, and she brings up numerous situations from her personal
life over the years that led her to the decision of leaving New York behind. This piece of writing
enlightens the audience of the bitter truth about the state of New York, which is represented like
a dream place all over media.
The main point of this piece of writing is not explicitly stated throughout the essay, but it
is clear that through the depiction of Didion’s experiences and lifestyle in New York, she is
describing how New York seems like a “romantic notion” when you are an outsider (p. 3). It
pulls you in by its magnetic charm, and it’s hard to get out once you are inside. She wrote this
piece in order to make the rest of the world understand that New York is not a fantasy place, but
it is in fact very real and just like any other real place, it has its own flaws. The sentences the
author has used to portray her temporary stay in the charming yet imperfect state are oddly long
and complicated; however, the peculiar thing is that those excruciatingly long sentences actually
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