Compare and Contrast: Helvarg, Didion

“Without sensory stimulation, we sink into a less-than-human state.” Helvarg and Didion are well versed in the art of descriptive writing. While both essays engage all five senses equally in the way that we, as readers, experience sights, sounds, smells, and taste as if uniquely a part of the story.

I consider Helvarg’s essay, “A Storm This Time,” to be a casual analysis showing the consequences of human action (or possibly, inaction) in relation to the weather. “What we know we are going to have are more environmental disasters like the Hurricane Season of ’05 linked to fossil-fuel-fired climate change and bad coastal policies driven by saltwater special interests.” On the other hand, I found Didion’s essay, “Santa Ana,” to be more of a narrative piece. She recounts the actions and reactions of the local community in response to a Santa Ana wind. “We know it because we feel it.  The baby frets.  The maid sulks.  I rekindle a waning argument with the telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, given over to whatever it is in the air.”

Both essays are subjective. The language used is connotative, so as to evoke deep emotional responses from the reader. David Helvarg wishes to impress the severity of damage Hurricane Katrina imposed on the city of New Orleans. “I begin to see box stores, warehouses and motels with their roofs ripped