In her essay, Slouching towards Bethlehem (1967), Joan Didion implies that fragmentation in

American mid-twentieth century society has caused a decay in the social values and
education of new generations (both a lack of civility and formal education), generating a
vacuum. These socially unequipped and uneducated kids have occupied this space with a
failed attempt to create a new community, the "Hippie" movement. Didion supports her
claim about this social decay with stories and specific examples that illustrate how this drug-
based lifestyle has provoked numerous problems in hippies' daily lives. From the incapacity
of educating their children to their lack of reasoning and political consciousness, and how
subtly political groups like "the diggers" are taking advantage of the situation as the press
overlook it. Her purpose is to criticize the Utopian depiction of the hippie scene made by the
media, showing how fragmented and brainless the movement really is in order to warn the
American people of the atomization their society has suffered and the political problems an
ignorant non-educated mass of youths could bring. She seems to have an educated and
moderate audience in mind because her tone is objective but critical, and she suggests a
variety of arguments against hippies as she uses examples of her personal stories from a
sorrowful point of view to convince the moderate audience. She also uses a fragmented
narrative and literary resources (aiming to the educated audience) to convey how
incoherent and fragmented was the society of these youths who were "slouching towards
Bethlehem to be born".