"Emergency" by Denis Johnson Blog

The short story "Emergency" by Denis Johnson was a pretty intense read, filled with violence and drug abuse. The story revolved around the lives of the narrator and his friend, Georgie. They both work at a hospital with what is described as a highly incompetent team. It seems as if the author is trying to send a message about the medical system of today. When a victim (Terrence Weber) comes into the emergency room with a knife stuck in his eye, the doctor on duty has no idea what to do. He replies, "I'm not touching that head. I'm just going to watch this one." The narrator and Georgie are high on drugs for most of the story, so it is hard to tell whether or not the events described actually happened or if they were some hallucination dreamed up when they were high. At one point in the story the narrator gets confused as to whether or not he is recounting the story correctly. He says, "Or maybe that wasn't the time it snowed. Maybe it was the time we slept in the truck and I rolled over on the bunnies and flattened them. It doesn't matter."  When I was first reading the story it seemed to me that Georgie had something mentally wrong with him. Throughout the story he is talking about how he can't see and what not. However, I believe that this is just a result of heavy drug use. Something that I found odd is that although Georgie is portrayed as somewhat reckless and inept, he ends up saving the life of Terrence Weber and preserving the life of the baby rabbits for a little while. Toward the end of the story Georgie and the narrator pick up a hitchhiker. It is revealed that he has been drafted into the war and is trying to flee to Canada. I am assuming that this is referring to the Vietnam War, which took place in the late sixties and seventies. This helped bring the drug use throughout the novel into perspective a little bit. This was time when using drugs was a more common thing.

VOCABULARY:
Orderly: A nursing assistant who ensures the comfort, safety, and general well-being of patients in hospitals. He or she might help a person get out of bed, get dressed, and move around.