Denis Johnsons Emergency Denis Johnson Background Emergency Key

Denis Johnson’s Emergency Denis Johnson Background Emergency Key Words and Info Themes Questions http: //www. podcast. de/episode/3429148/Tobias%2 BWolff%2 Breads%2 BDenis%2 BJ ohnson/ https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=g. K 31 JPn. SWeg

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?