Denis Johnson’s Emergency

Denis Emergenc Key Words Themes Questions

Johnson y and Info
Background

http://www.podcast.de/episode/3429148/Tobias%2BWolff%2Breads%2BDenis%2BJ
ohnson/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK31JPnSWeg
 Denis Johnson
• Born July 1, 1949
• Munich, West Germany
• Novelist, Poet, and
Playwright
• Fought addiction and
alcoholism (quitting
drinking in 1978 and
drugs in 1983)
 Brief Questions
• Besides writing short
stories, novels, and
plays, what else does he
write?
• What did he battle
throughout his life?
• Where was he born?
 Emergency
• Published in collection
of short stories, Jesus’
Son
• Published in 1992
• Stories deal with
addiction, petty crime,
and murder
• Narrated by troubled
untrustworthy narrators
(might just be one)
 Emergency
• Told in the First-Person
(I)
• Narrator is drug addict
who works for hospital
• Narrator is friends with
orderly who steals
drugs
• Story follows their
adventures once
released for work (after
dealing with someone
who was stabbed with a
knife in the eye)
 Characters
• Narrator (FH): a
clerk at the hospital
• Georgie: the
Orderly, Narrator’s
friend
• Nurse
• Hardee: AWOL,
leaving to Canada
 Key Words and Info
Key Information
• The Draft: Many tried to
escape to Canada to avoid
being drafted for war
Key Words
• Coronary-unit: Department
of hospital in charge of
heart-related issues
• Quivering: shaking
• AWOL: desertion
• Extraterrestrial: Alien
• ICU: Intensive Care Unit
• Orderly: a hospital worker
who does grunt work for
doctors and/or nurse (sets
up room, cleans after
surgery, moves bodies, etc.)
 Literary Devices
• Imagery: any language that appeals to the five
senses (visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory, and
olfactory)
• Symbolism: an object or thing that represents
an abstract idea larger than the object or thing
• Irony: when the reality is not what one would
expect
 Questions
• What is the Draft? And
why did people want to
avoid it?
• What does an orderly
do?
• What is irony?
 Themes
• Seeing
– Are there things we see that we shouldn’t?
– Do we see everything in front of us or is there stuff
that is hidden?
• Imagination vs. Reality
• Saving Lives
– What does it mean to save lives?
• Human’s Goodness
– Are human’s innately (naturally) good people?
• Being on the margin of society
 Questions
• What are two of the major themes of this
text?
• How might the drug aspects and imagination
vs. reality theme relate to the author, Denis
Johnson?
• What key word might someone be doing if
they were caught AWOL?