When I first started reading Joan Didions article 'On Self Respect' , it made me think a lot about the actual idea of self respect. She states that "innocence ends when one is stripped of the delusion that one likes oneself." I had to think really hard about this, because it seemed like an extremely strong statement. She was essentially saying that right when you realize that you're not exactly who you thought you were, you're no longer innocent. I dont necessarily agree with this statement, because innocence is more than just being happy. Innocence is commonly described as the freedom from sin, or moral wrong. She states that she felt as if she lost all she ever had, due to someone else's opinion, and the strength it takes too overcome this feeling, is described as self respect.
Joan Didion places a large emphasis upon the aspect of overcoming experience within her article. Self respect consists of more than just being able to overcome degrading experiences...but it also entails being able to accept yourself, without having to prove that acceptance to anyone else. I believe that Joan Didion completely disregards the other aspects of self respect, and bases her article solely upon her own experiences. In regards to her opinion itself, I think she's right when she talks about courage being completely necessary to demonstrate self respect. I agree that in order to overcome deteriorating experiences, you must have courage. To be able to stand up for yourself, and understand that the only thing that will heal your misfortunes is the acceptance of your past, you require courage. In order to stop caring about what people think about you, you require courage, and in order to move on, you require courage. Furthermore, although Joan Didion only talks about her personal situation, I agree with that courage is essential in reaffirming respect for yourself.
Joan Didion describes reputation to be " something people with courage can do without." I agree with her completely in that reputation shouldnt matter if you're 100% satisfied with yourself. She states that "The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others – who we are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation." In this instance, I believe that anyone who wants to resist reputation requires both courage, and integrity. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this article, as an analysis of Joan Didions personal perspective. In regards to the overall concept of self respect, I think she could have wrote alot more intellectually by assessing the different aspects of self respect as a whole.
- do you agree that only those lacking courage care about reputation?
- assuming the definition of innocence is : "the freedom from sin, moral wrong, or guilt through lack of knowledege of evil" do you agree that you are completely stripped of innocence, once you understand that one doesnt love oneself?
- do you believe that self respect is essential in order to live a prosperious life?
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