The crossing story is a genre of Californian tales that are at once historical accounts and mythical legends of the pioneers’ travels across the country to the West. This motif appears throughout the text to explain The Contradictions of Californian Identity, as the conventions of this genre expose the brutal individualism and lack of social responsibility hidden beneath the veneer of heroism. Didion identifies several standard elements in the crossing story. 

First, she notices a strangely omniscient narrative perspective, one that allows the storyteller to add embellishments to the story. These embellishments are “recorded as gospel” (30) and taken as facts by descendants, which skews their understanding of their history. Second, crossing stories frame themselves as heroic quests and battles for survival against the elements. The landmarks along the crossing trail are so engrained in the California mythos that they take on legendary status, leading people to feel unworthy of seeing them without having gone through the same trials. Last, the stories center around the theme of “redemption” and rebirth, as if by passing through the wilderness and coming out the other end, the pioneers arrive to California cleansed and able to start a new, prosperous society.

Throughout the text, Didion recalls hearing these stories as a child and absorbing their lessons of perseverance and ambition. However, as she matured and started questioning Californian identity, she saw the dark underbelly that listeners of these tales refused to interrogate. Most glaringly, Didion identifies the necessity of these pioneers to cut themselves off completely from their past, from their emotions, and sometimes from their humanity in the name of their individual ambitions. She frequently uses the term “jettison” to describe the pioneers’ act of indiscriminately throwing out items, people, and feelings along the trail to California. Such a lack of sentimentality or duty towards others persists in the Californian identity, and Didion traces these tendencies back to the hidden lessons of the crossing story.