Brush Fire And Joan Didion: A Comparative Analysis

No two people are truly the same, therefore creating a mass difference in outlooks when experiencing things. This is seen in the writings of authors Linda Thomas and Joan Didion in their separate essays, Brush Fire and The Santa Ana. Theses essays revolve around the same experience both authors share of the Santa Ana wildfire in southern California, but in different perspective. In Brush Fire, Linda Thomas gives the reader a more beautiful insight on wildfires while Joan Didion has a more serious and disheartening perspective on them, which each author paints in their own way.
Despite having different views on the topic, each essay holds an alike form to one another. Didion tires to evoke emotion from the audience by putting statistical facts of deaths that

occurred during previous wildfires. “On November 24 six people were killed in
While describing the atmosphere leading up to Santa Ana, each other chose different words and cast different tones to their text.

Joan Didion uses words such as ‘eerie’, ‘depression’, and ‘unnatural’ bringing an unsettling and serious tone. Didion reflects this uneasiness on the people and how as Santa Ana nears, it affects them. “I have neither heard, nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks (Didion).” As Santa Ana looms closer the people living in the area get a strange sensation, almost self preparing themselves for the worst. Linda Thomas however describes the atmosphere in a different light. Thomas uses words such as ‘undisturbed’, ‘undamaged’, and ‘natural’ bringing a more casual and normalized tone. “I awoke to air so dry that the graze of my nightgown against the down comforter created tiny orange sparks… And as I make the drive to work, I find myself beneath a smoky sky the color of fire (Thomas).” The self knowing that Santa Ana is there, just like with Didion, but there is no strange feeling present. It is almost as if the presence of Santa Ana is not bothering and

natural.
Didion writes, “to live with Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior (Didion).” She reflects on how much Santa Ana takes from the people living in the area, even by changing their human behavior. Didion writes about this change through her neighbor and the actions they portray as Santa Ana neared. “My neighbor would not come out of her house for days… and her husband roamed the place with a machete. One day he would tell me that he heard a trespasser, the next a rattle snake (Didion).” Didion makes it an effort to have the reader realize that once Santa Ana rolls around the people completely change, and act differently in almost a crazed way. Thomas contrast that in her essay when speaking of the natives of the area. Thomas writes, “on this evening, my neighbors have arrived, their dogs and children in tow. Some have brought soft drinks. Most have cameras… We are here to watch the orange flames color the sunset (Thomas).” The people in the area treat the event like an interesting exhibit in a museum, gathered around to enjoy. Didiom makes the people of the area cautious and afraid while Thomas makes them nonchalant to Santa Ana.