Eduene and Frank Reese Didion are Joan’s parents, who figure in the text as representatives of the negative consequences of California’s confused identity. Both Eduene and Frank are descendants of families with long histories in California, and as such, they are entrenched in stories of family resilience and productivity. Didion describes Eduene as “passionately opinionated” and believing wholeheartedly in California’s spirit of “unfettered individualism” (205). Didion comes to see her stubbornness as a defense mechanism against the apathy she felt towards her life, evident in her frequently saying, “What difference does it make?” (207). Eduene often dreamed of leaving California altogether, which points towards a trait of restlessness that was common among the state’s modern population. Eduene died in 2001.

Frank Didion was similarly stubborn in character, especially about wanting to stay in Sacramento. He worked for the Army during World War II, which necessitated the family’s movement around the country. Didion describes her father as a classic Californian risk-tasker, particularly when it came to finding work. He did anything from buying and selling real estate to gambling to support the family through tough times. Beneath this façade, however, Didion identifies a consistent fear of being a failure. Frank was once placed under medical observation for depression, and Didion recalls that he tried to bravely confront and overcome his despair. Frank died in 1992.

Josiah Royce (1855-1916) was a philosopher and academic who was born in California in 1855, but who made his career in Harvard during its “golden period” in the 1880s. Josiah was the son of Josiah and Sarah Royce, who made the crossing from east to west in 1848. Sarah Royce published her historical account of this crossing in a memoir, which Didion quotes throughout the text. Didion also includes passages from Josiah’s many speeches, as he spoke early on about Californian identity and asked questions about the contradictions he saw, although Didion argues he didn’t investigate these questions all the way to their conclusions. 

Didion frequently refers to Royce’s description of pioneering Californians as those who displayed both “new failings and new strengths” (189), the best and worst of the American character. In these settlers, Royce identifies a lack of social responsibility and weakness of character where money was involved. He also lamented the lack of community spirit in California because of its geographic and social isolations. Royce’s early work on California is a key underpinning of Didion’s own investigation, which proves to her that such contradictions existed from the very outset of the state’s settlement.

Frank Norris (1870-1902) was a novelist and journalist, who, though not from California, was interested in the California story and its unique connection to the larger American project. Norris dreamed of writing an epic trilogy that would follow the trail of wheat across the country—one book about growers of wheat in California, one about marketers of wheat in Chicago, and one about purchasers of wheat in Europe—though this trilogy was never completed. 

Norris took inspiration for the first book, The Octopus (1901), from historical events in the San Benito and San Joaquin Valley regions. The novel centers on the sometimes-violent conflicts between farmers (or rather, landowners) and the railways, exploring themes of labor exploitation and poverty. Didion analyzes this book and draws from it the common Californian anti-corporate, anti-government sentiment, as well as the contradicting reality of the community’s dependence on the federal government and railways for their economy. The Octopus is a key text in Didion’s exploration of California’s vision of itself, as the book was required reading in schools during Didion’s youth.

Henry George (1839-1897) was a political economist and journalist from Philadelphia who moved to the West in 1858. George was a founding member of the Bohemian Club, a San Francisco journalists’ and artists’ group that met to share radical new ideas. Didion traces how this club ultimately devolved from its earliest tenets to become a meeting place of the nation’s corporate and political elite. 

George wrote the famous essay “What the Railroads Will Bring Us” (1868), which Didion references throughout the text. This essay asks questions about the state’s decision to sell its land to the Southern Pacific Railway, and it at once identifies the positives and dangers of the endeavor. Didion claims this essay came too late in a process already well underway, and though it became required reading in schools, this kind of critical perspective never took hold. Didion uses George’s essays to support her conclusions about California’s spirit of opportunism and its willingness to sell itself out to the highest bidder for temporary prosperity.

Jack London (1876-1916) was a California-born novelist, and the writer of The Valley of the Moon (1913), a book Didion is interested in for its exploration of California identity. For Didion, this text expresses common Californian feelings of xenophobia, as well as the state’s mythologizing of its pioneers. The book’s characters look to their ancestors to define their identities, which Didion indicates is endemic in the California community. 

Through this backwards-looking perspective, Didion investigates what the text says about being a “true” American, and how this is amplified by its disdain for “new people.” Didion also extrapolates from the book’s plot elements of London’s own life, as he too desperately wanted to farm the land and leave behind a legacy, but his agricultural experiments failed and he died three years after the book’s publication.