Self-Respect

             The essay that I am summarizing today deals with the issue of self-respect and the search for self-respect. At the beginning of the essay Didion describes a situation that she experienced at the age of nineteen. The experience deals with the failure to be pledged to a college honor society. The author realizes that life is judged on merit and not who you are. Didion begins to understand that all situations have consequences. The author did not make the grades to be pledged into the honor society; therefore seeing that you must earn things in life. Understanding that things are earned and not given made the author feel a sense of a loss of innocence. Didion sees that actions that win approval as a child are not the same actions that win approval as adults. The author understands that the way self-respect may have been earned when she was younger is not the same way it is earned at the age of nineteen.
             The author reflects this experience as the beginning of the true search for self-respect. Didion acknowledges self-deception as the main root of deception. She understands that the way you want others to see you and the way that you see yourself are two different things. When you are by yourself you always see the real person inside, no matter how hard you try and disguise it. The author realizes self-respect is not how others see you but how you see yourself.
             The author discusses the feeling of living without self-respect. Didion says that people try and accomplish living without self-respect everyday. The author describes the feeling of waking up one day and dealing with the realization of having no self-respect. She uses comparisons to emphasize the dreary feeling that you feel inside.
             The author compares people who live with and without self-respect. Didion acknowledges that people can live without self-respect but she also describes the inner piece of people who have self-respect. Didion discusses how peop...

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Self-Respect. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 16:28, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/92243.html