Are Didion's subjects able to obtain the "California Dream"?

In looking at the book as a whole, and not necessarily just at one essay, the ultimate answer to whether or not Didion's subjects obtain the California Dream is that several did for a moment in time, but the dream was often ultimately spoiled for them.

Many of the essays in the book present California as an ideal frontier where people come to live out their wildest dreams, dreams they cannot possibly accomplish elsewhere. However,...

In looking at the book as a whole, and not necessarily just at one essay, the ultimate answer to whether or not Didion's subjects obtain the California Dream is that several did for a moment in time, but the dream was often ultimately spoiled for them.

Many of the essays in the book present California as an ideal frontier where people come to live out their wildest dreams, dreams they cannot possibly accomplish elsewhere. However, these same people often find that their fantasy of California and their reality are very different from one another. In essence, the California Dream is more like a gold-leaf-covered rock than a real gold nugget.

Although some of Didion's subjects are happy for a while, or successful for a while, there always seems to be some tinge of sadness, disappointment, or tragedy for them. For example, in "John Wayne: A Love Song," Didion recounts meeting the actor at the end of his life when he was dying of cancer. He was no longer the overtly strong and masculine cowboy that had once dominated Western films and found such wild success in Hollywood.

Similarly, she recounts the strangely ironic stories of Lucille Miller and Howard Hughes. Again, these are both people who did have success in California, but at some point it became sadly tarnished.

Because of the focus of multiple essays, the ways the people in them are characterized, and the fact that most of these essays do not emphasize happiness, it could be argued that although some of the people Didion writes about enjoyed the California Dream for short periods of time, the dream was ultimately spoiled for them.