Goodbye to all that by Joan Didion

Goodbye To All That. Joan Didion captures and explores the image of a young girl who has struggled to get to New York City. It is the story of her life since the first day she got into the city up t when she decides to leave it indefinitely. When we first meet her, she is a young, naïve and cultural lady who have too much expectation from the far country. She is happy to visit the city to experience all that she had heard about it including what was shown in the movies, songs and that she had read. This is a realization of her long time dreams and desires. She, however, wishes that the circumstances were different so that she could be in other better towns like San Francisco or Paris. Her amusement is introduced right from the bus where she enjoyed watching the skyline and the summer rains that were hard to come by in California. In the first days, she had to adjust to the new climate where she ended up catching a cold. However, her naivety could not allow her to either call the doctor or the help desk so that the air conditioner could be adjusted. Partly this is due to fear and somewhat due to her poor economic standard. Further, Didion introduces us to her young age, her early entry into the love life. The story is that of a young girl realizing herself in a new country and lifestyle. Throughout the story, we are also familiarized with the changes she experiences.
Didion, although being young, learns the routine in the town fast. Within a short time, she had already noticed the joints where to hang out at night and the best clubs to party in.

She adopts a party life where she does not hesitate socializing with people of all kinds. However, she introduces us to the high levels of immorality in that town where her male friends were as reckless as the female. Everyone was rather cheap and submissive. However, this does not affect her love for New York is too much. All she wanted was the merry, something she lacked in the home country. Nevertheless, she was worried that she had to pay much to be allowed to hang on some streets, but was determined to utilize the chance when she still was young. By then she was just 24 years. These experiences make her mature fast, and she takes it upon herself to earn a living than depend on her father. However, her magazine job did not pay enough to afford a pricey lifestyle where she could eat from clean joints and live in expensive apartments.
Despite meeting prominent and rich men in the parties and clubs, she kept her dignity still. At no single time did it cross her that she had to compromise her self-worth for her to earn a living. Rather she opted to hang out with people of similar character and whose mission was congruent to hers. They were the same individuals living with plane schedules eagerly waiting for the very moment their stay would be over and return to their countries. At the moment, all that was worth was maintaining her self-discipline. According to her and the other southerners, they were colonials in New York.
New York City was a city not meant for the poor people from the east and south. The cost of living is too high, and life is dictated by the amount of money and power one has. There are no cultural heritages, and everything is deceitful. She does not commit herself to the life. This is apparent from the fact that she opted not to purchase any furniture like the other ladies until she got married, and her husband had to stock the house. Part of what she left behind started the time she set foot in New York. She had to leave behind her boyfriend who she had promised to get back to after six months and get married. She also had to leave in the Nineties house all her belongings including the winter clothes and the map of Sacramento that reminded her of her mission. Apart from the filthy lifestyle, she left the perfumes and soaps she used and broke some of the vows she had made to herself and her family. Also, she had to leave the fantasies she had in New York and the party life which resulted in being wrong parties. Above all, she had to realize herself, abstain from the lavish life and start building a future. In the end, what had previously mattered was no longer attractive. She could not stand the gossips about couples breaking up, going to the library or hanging out in some streets. Having wasted her like in things that did not matter, she became desperate and eventually got married. This is what made her dislike New York to the extent that she had to influence her husband they stay in Los Angeles. It is because of all the things she left behind that she cannot afford to go back to New York.