Slouching Towards Bethlehem Analysis

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Overall Book Analysis and Final Overview: Slouching Towards Bethlehem 1. The overall claim of Joan Didion’s collection of essays titled Slouching Towards Bethlehem is that the world, in this case, specifically the United States, has come to a state of chaos and disorder that is not going to blow over any time soon. This is illustrated in the opening paragraph of her book in which she states that she hadn’t been able to work in many months because the world she once knew was gone. She explains that she went to San Francisco because she felt that she needed to come to terms with the current disorder of her country and her life. Another example that depicts the overall theme of “disorder” is the organization of her essays; most obviously, the essay titled “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”. Her organization within that essay is choppy and confusing, much like a diary entry. The confusing organization of that essay, and of the entire book, is used by Didion to demonstrate to the reader a central claim that is prevalent throughout the novel: life is chaotic and disorderly and there is nothing any one can do about it. That claim can be easily interpreted as cynical; however, Didion’s final conclusion is this: one must come to terms with and embrace the chaos in order to live a full life. 2. I fully agree with Joan Didion’s arguments and conclusions that are presented within her novel. Throughout the essays, Didion presents a very realistic view of the world, or at least the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. The very title of her book alludes to a poem written by W. B. Yeats of the same name. Both her book and Yeats’ poem describe the current state of the world as chaotic and frenzied and hectic. This claim is illustrated in the book with odd and unsettling imagery; for example, a pre-school age child who was given LSD by her parents. Despite Didion’s

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