Joan Didion "On Keeping a Journal"

400 Words2 Pages
Somewhere along everyone’s life, expressing ones thoughts are always said or written down. Most people in their childhood tend to find having the possession of a notebook, and consistently writing it down for the future is by choice. Having a journal kept by some people stays unknown. Whether it’s for their own keepsake of their memories, or simply just their day by day thoughts, the reason differs for every person. In Joan Didion’s on keeping a journal, she talks about the things that she has written in a journal that she has kept since she was young. Joan Didion tries to explain to the reader why she keeps a journal, but the specific reason is remained unknown. After reading Joan Didion’s on keeping a journal, I think the main implied reason why she keeps a notebook is to suppress the bad memories that she had in her childhood. This argument is supported by expressing the difference between her childhood and her daughter, expressing difference between writers and non writers, and expressing her imagination of her past thoughts. Joan Didion’s “in keeping a notebook”, has shown that she writes to suppress bad memories by her expressing the difference between her childhood and he daughters. Although there is not a direct reason as to why Didion writes s, one could imply that because Didion did not have a “perfect” childhood, she writes in order to not remember the bad memories. Didion states that her daughter would never write like her because she is “singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her” (55). This quote presents the idea that Didion has a much different childhood than her daughter. Although she does not talk about how her childhood was, she explains how her daughters’ good life does not compel her to write things down like she has since she was 5 years old. From this, it can be said that since there

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