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    Denis Johnson's Emergency: Emergenc y Key Words and Info Themes Questions

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    lisa
    Denis Johnson's short story "Emergency" follows a drug-addicted narrator who works as a clerk in a hospital. The narrator is friends with an orderly who steals drugs from the hospital. The story depicts their drug-fueled adventures after work one day, as they deal with an unstable friend who was stabbed in the eye. Key themes include the blurring of imagination and reality due to drug use, and what it means to save lives in the medical field.

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    Denis Johnson's Emergency: Emergenc y Key Words and Info Themes Questions

    Uploaded by

    lisa
    73 views11 pages
    Denis Johnson's short story "Emergency" follows a drug-addicted narrator who works as a clerk in a hospital. The narrator is friends with an orderly who steals drugs from the hospital. The story depicts their drug-fueled adventures after work one day, as they deal with an unstable friend who was stabbed in the eye. Key themes include the blurring of imagination and reality due to drug use, and what it means to save lives in the medical field.

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    Denis

    Original Title

    Denis Johnson

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    Denis Johnson's short story "Emergency" follows a drug-addicted narrator who works as a clerk in a hospital. The narrator is friends with an orderly who steals drugs from the hospital. The story depicts their drug-fueled adventures after work one day, as they deal with an unstable friend who was stabbed in the eye. Key themes include the blurring of imagination and reality due to drug use, and what it means to save lives in the medical field.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    73 views11 pages

    Denis Johnson's Emergency: Emergenc y Key Words and Info Themes Questions

    Uploaded by

    lisa
    Denis Johnson's short story "Emergency" follows a drug-addicted narrator who works as a clerk in a hospital. The narrator is friends with an orderly who steals drugs from the hospital. The story depicts their drug-fueled adventures after work one day, as they deal with an unstable friend who was stabbed in the eye. Key themes include the blurring of imagination and reality due to drug use, and what it means to save lives in the medical field.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
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    At a glance
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    The passage provides background information on author Denis Johnson and discusses his short story 'Emergency', including characters, plot, themes, and literary devices.

    The Draft refers to the compulsory military conscription during times of war. Many people tried to escape to Canada to avoid being drafted into the war.

    Two major themes in the text are 'Imagination vs. Reality' and 'Being on the margin of society'.

    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 Words
    Key Information • Coronary-unit: Department
    • The Draft: Many tried to of hospital in charge of
    escape to Canada to avoid heart-related issues
    being drafted for war • 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?

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