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 …showed first 75 words of 543 total…

…showed last 75 words of 543 total…without these things. The author describes a situation called alienation from self. This is when a person has no self-respect and cannot stand to do anything because of the fear of rejection. She describes how a person cannot risk this fear because they have no confidence in themselves. The author says a person must have self-respect because without it a person will go and try to find him or herself and find no one exists.