Melanie T.

Vo
Pd. 1
AP English
4/1/14
Self Respect is a Value
Self respect is something everyone should earn, but it is difficult for people to accept
themselves the way they are. In her encouraging yet analytic essay On Self Respect, Joan
Didion refers to characters in books that reflect on their disposition of self confidence, as well as
herself, in order to define self respect as an essential value. You must learn to love yourself first.
If one does not hold this value, they are not able to truly love or care about someone else.
Didion begins her essay with an anecdote: she narrates a story of how she has not been
elected to Phi Beta Kappa because of her unacceptable grades. She states, I lost the conviction
that lights would always turn green for me, the pleasant certainty that those rather passive virtues
which had won me approval as a child automatically guaranteed me not only Phi Beta Kappa
keys but happiness, honor, and the love of good man (215). Didion uses a metaphor lights
would always turn green for me to give the sense that she expected good things happening to
her and compared it with a street light. She also uses positive words like pleasant certainly,
approval, guaranteed, happiness, honor, love to create an ideal positive outcome, but it actually
refutes the phrase I lost the conviction. Didion does this to create a tone of bewilderment. She
believed that if her intrinsic worth was the key to being accepted, then it would lead to, as she
said, being accepted into Phi Beta Kappa, happiness, honor, and a mans love. Shed rather be
accepted by others rather than herself. This then contradicts her point of accepting yourself first
before worrying about the acceptance of others and emphasizes how important it is to believe in
yourself.
Didion then shifts to the reference of a character, Jordan Baker, in The Great Gatsby.
Didion mentions, Like Jordan Baker, people with self respect have the courage of their
mistakes. They know the price of things (216). Then ties the idea to the audience, People with
self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called
character, a quality which, althoughmore instantly negotiable virtues. (216). When she uses
Jordan Baker as an example and then tying the confidence with the general people, it allows
readers to make the connection between themselves and characters in books. She appeals to the
emotion of confidence because readers will be able to put themselves in the character (that
Didion mentioned) shoes, relating their feelings and the characters situation. She clarifies that
people who have self respect show confidence, not arrogance, and its a quality everyone can
accept. Therefore, if you accept yourself, everyone else will accept you, thus causing love and
true happiness in your life.
Didion later sub-ends her essay by creating analogies on the roles of Francesca and Paolo
as well as Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. We flatter ourselves by thinking this compulsion to
please others an attractive trait: a gist for imaginative empathyI will play Francesca to your
PaoloSullivan: no expectation is too misplaced, no role is too ludicrouseach defeat
generating .and meeting the next demand made upon us. (218). She uses analogies from two
characters to compare them to each other based on their role: an outcast based on who they
are/their actions. You can play a role and lie to others that you have self respect, but you are just
lying to yourself. This highlights the importance of self honesty. When you are honest to
yourself, you are able to be a true form of yourself, then capable to love yourself and honestly
care for others.
Self respect is an important characteristic everyone should be able to hold. Didion defines
self respect as a value, or a virtue, or a quality she had once not had. She learned to gain it and
earn it. Accept yourself like how you accept others and you will be able to find true happiness
and love.












Works Cited
Didion, Joan. "On Self Respect." 1961: 215-18. Print.