Emergency and Home

The short story "Emergency" by Dennis Johnson i found to be very interesting due to the fact it kept my attention throughout its entirety. In part, i felt i enjoyed it so much because the way in which Dennis Johnson wrote it made me feel as if i was there, somewhat of a third person party. The details, situations, and various scenarios (from hospital, to the road, to the woods) made the story easily understandable, easy to picture, and easy to relate with. Majority of people have been in a hospital and the woods at one point in their life, allowing this story to give out a picturesque mental image.

In the story, i felt the potential positives and negatives of drug use were portrayed, as both the narrator and the orderly Georgie were on pills the entire time. Many negatives were seen towards the beginning of the story, as Georgie was seen trembling and weeping while attempting to mop up blood that was not even there. In this situation, Georgie states "There's so much goop inside of us man...and it all wants to get out." This quotation may be seen as a "bad trip" as Georgie is tying in all the deaths and injury seen within the hospital, making it seem as if its normal and supposed to happen. Drug use in the story also kept me on the edge of my seat, particularly in the instance where the narrator and Georgie are asked to perform surgery on Terrence Webber. Because they were inebriated, i was very anxious to see how the surgery was going to pan out, and if anything wrong and traumatic was going to occur. Drugs in this situation, after continuing to read, may have actually been beneficial. The head doctor when seeing the injury states "Im not touching that head. Im just going to watch this one. I know my limits." This quote shows signs of nervousness and pressure. Beacause Georgie was in a "high" however, he had no fear of the situation, and eventually went in to prep the patient and came out with the hunting knife in his left hand. After inspecting the patient, "it turned out that he had excellent vision in the one good eye, and acceptable motor and reflex" proving Georgie did a good job.

Drugs were also reprented in a negative light, making individuals take part in weird and abnormal activites. Some in the book included cutting the rabbit open and trying to save the babbies, picturing the drive in movie theatre as a military grave yard, and simply driving around aimlessly throughout the night.

The story "Home" by Jayne Anne Phillips i found to be depressing. To me, i found both characters (the mother and daughter) to be living in the past and living vicariously in the present through the news and events outside of their home. They show no sense of adventure of action, doing the same things everyday, which include the daughter watching the news and reading books in her room and the mother watching television and knitting afghans. Both characters show many signs of heartache. The first one in the mothers point of view included her bad marriage. "She married him in two weeks. It took twenty years to divorce him." This quote shows how she jumped into the marriage, due to her sick mother, and how the marriage was not enjoyable and was headed towards divorce the entire time. A heartache experienced by the daughter was seen in a description of one of her dreams. On page 414, it describes a dream of her father, and fear and remembrance of being molested by him. I came to this conclusion by the description of what the father was wearing (a towel) and the fear and attempt of avoidance by the daughter.

Due to her father molesting her, this in turn my have caused the narrator to be afraid of relationships with other men. In the beginning of the book, it states that she came home because she was not in love. But after seeing a class ring at the garage sail, and once again reminiscing about the past, she thinks about Jason and how much she misses him. She then begins to spend time with Daniel, which leads to further heartbreak for the mother. Her mother throughout her life urges her to wait till marriage to have sex. This apparently was not understood or taken to heart, as she has sex with Daniel in her mothers house, leading to controversy and uneasiness between the mother and daughter. Overall, the story "Home" is full of remembrance of unfortunate and painstaking events and the creation of new ones.