Milia McCoy

November 19, 2019

Period 7

Time and Space Analysis

- Affecting the cultural contexts of a literary text
- Literary text is not written in a vacuum

In Joan Didion’s collection of essays, ​Slouching Towards Bethlehem, ​a particular essay,

Notes from a Native Daughter, ​makes use of time and space as an area of exploration. The essay,

written in 1965, compares the state of Sacramento in the past to the present, to analyze where she

thinks Sacramento will be in the future.

Whilst reading, there are certain elements that remain only true to this ​true ​California and

cannot be taken in the context of another location. While describing aspects of her childhood,

Didion writes in descriptive imagery that can only be written for a childhood in that time and

space. It helps to immerse us into her childhood, despite (at least for me) never experiencing

something like that as a child. She continues to describe these childhood events fondly to help

the readers understand the time and place in which she grew up. So when she says a line like,

“All that is constant about the California of my childhood is the rate at which it disappears,”

(Didion, 176) feels all the more personal. All while reading about Didion longingly reminiscing

about the past she is used too, Didion writes that the people of Sacramento doing so as well and

how it becomes both a major influence on the town and the behaviours of the people. This is

made clear in a parenthetical remark, “ reminiscing (the favored conversational mode in

Sacramento)” (Didion, 175). It is interesting to see the avid role that time and space plays in this

essay. It is used in the actual content of Didion’s writing when she both writes about the past and

the present, as well as writing about how the people are unable to live in the present as they are

influenced by their own past.

It is at this point in the essay where the narrative of past Sacramento shifts to Sacramento

circa 1965 (in the time that this was written “modern” Sacramento) and Didion uses the current

climate of Sacramento to expresses both her concerns and optimism to where she thinks it will

guide Sacramento in the future. She writes about her concern that the future will lose or forget

about the Sacramento she grew up in, and ultimately important events of her childhood. “That is

a story my generation knows; I doubt that the next will know it,” (Didion, 185) is said after she

recites “a Sacramento story”. This element addresses that things in her homes and space are

subject to change, and her views, stories, and fundamental culture, is subject to change over time.

In the middle of the essay, before Didion writes about the state of her town in the future, she

questions, “Which is the true California? That is what we all wonder.” (Didon 179). This

engages readers with the question of how time and space interact. If “true California” exists in a

specific time and place, how will it change over time? Is the space that once occupied true

California subject to change over time? And if so, who decides that?

All of these questions can be drawn from an evaluation or conversation of space and

time in the context of this passage ​Notes from a Native Daughter. ​Didion makes sure to blatantly

question this herself in the passage. And by the end, she leaves this question to be unanswered

and up to the interpretation of the reader. After writing so fondly of her childhood, and

expressing both fear and dejection about it not being carried out to the next generation, she ends
the novel with a sense of hopefulness. She writes, “Perhaps in retrospect this has been a story not

about Sacramento at all, but about the things we lose and the promises we break as we get older,”

(Didion, 186). By ending with a sort of vague statement she draws the story back to her own

personal perspective. She may be projecting her own fears on a specific place and how time is

affecting it, when in actuality her fears could just be time itself, as it happens to affect not only

Sacramento but herself, physically and mentally. This shows the readers that time and space does

not just affect the literal setting that one writes or talks about, but both the reader and writer’s

perspective in which a thing is viewed.