Free Essay About Addressing The Concept Of Meaninglessness By Joan Didion

(Institute affiliation)
In this paper I will be discussing Joan Didion’s essay written on grief. Joan Didion begins by speaking about grief that a human being feels at the loss of a loved one. Didion speaks about there being two types of grief – one is the actual grief that we feel, the other being the one in our mind. The actual feeling of grief comes from the heart whereas the made up version is all in the head. She expresses her feelings by saying that grief actually strikes a person after the event has occurred and during other times the grief a person feels is merely an illusion. I believe with Didion when she says that the actual grief may feel completely different from the illusion of grief that we s humans make up. The meaninglessness and the void may or may not be felt at the time of loss.
Joan Didion then goes on to claim associate the meaninglessness of one’s existence with the geological events that man has brought upon himself. She reflect about how she comprehended the term meaninglessness when she was a child. She states that the true meaning of the term is embedded in geology as she cites examples of the bombing of Hiroshima and the mushroom clouds over Nevada. Joan might be trying to imply here that man contributes to the feeling of meaninglessness by indulging in experiments which kills people. She indirectly says that man made destruction makes one’s existence meaningless. Unlike other philosophers such a Albert Camus, Didion says that it is mankind who makes existence meaningless as he brings upon death and destruction. Albert Camus through his work The Myth of Sisyphus talks indirectly about meaninglessness through the concept of absurdity. In Greek literature the myth of Sisyphus is about a Sisyphus who is punished by the Gods because of his act of disobedience. His punishment entailed him rolling a boulder up a hill but since the boulder was cursed, every time Sisyphus completed the task of placing the boulder atop the hill, the boulder would roll back down, make Sisyphus’ task seem meaningless. Even after having the knowledge of the curse Sisyphus continued this “meaningless” existence because it was his free will that pushed him to continue his task. Camus states another option other than free will which is suicide.
Joan Didion too is addressing the concept of absurdity and meaninglessness through grief. She says that though we know that death will one day consume us we still continue to live our lives and try and find some meaning in our existence. In the last bit of the essay she talks of her family life and her role as a mother and wife. She talks of how she and her family continue to exist against the backdrop of the “test shots”, “earthquakes” and “landslides”. She concludes by saying that she had anticipated a geological disaster that would be the reason of losing a loved one and not a heart attack. This could be a comment on the growing tension between countries that are at war with each other. All this mass destruction seems futile when seen in the larger context of the universe. By this I mean that fighting against each other is unnecessary because at the end of it none of it will matter because there will come a time when we will cease to exist. At the end of the essay Joan says that she thought that her family and she would die by being engulfed by a natural disaster, this could be a comment on the increasing number of natural disasters that are frequently occurring across the world.
In response to Joan Didion’s passage, I do believe that the act of waging war against one another is a futile exercise. I also agree that even after having the knowledge that one day our lives will cease to exist because of numerous factors, we continue to exercise our free will of wanting to live a meaningful life. Like Joan finds meaning of life in her role as a mother and wife, I too seek to live a meaningful existence where I can live a comfortable and harmonious life. This harmony is achieved in the daily activities and achievements.