Wood Fences and Petals on a Wet Black Bough: A Rhetorical Comparison of Noel Perrin and Joan Didion

Abstract

Noel Perrin and Joan Didion initially seem to have nothing in common. Perrin lives a rustic country life, while Didion embraces the social revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Perrin's "First Person Rural" is a graphic portrayal of a different section of the country that good-naturedly advocates a simpler way of living in the modern world. On the other hand, Didion's "The White Album" is an important comment on the Sixties, one that is both critical and personal, and even at times lyrical. Perrin and Didion's writing styles differ drastically; each uses a separate set of rhetorical devices that emphasize the everyday struggles and challenges that each face. Insofar as can be ascertained by a quick reading of these texts, the two authors are completely dissimilar in theme and in style. Nevertheless, after a thorough dissection of the two authors' prose, it emerges that they have several fundamental similarities.

Both authors begin their chapters or essays with a definitive statement. Didion, for example, begins "The White Album" with "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." "First Person Rural" begins with "A modern farmer is usually as much into the money economy as any bank president." He begins his second chapter with "Maple syrup comes in three grades." All of these statements are short and to the point, explicitly guiding the reader to the authors' conclusion regarding their location and time period.