Emergency and Home

The first story I read was Emergency by Denis Johnson. To be honest, I was pretty confused throughout a lot of the story. There were many allusions that I didn't fully understand. Georgie, especially intrigued me. He makes some insightful comments like, "There's so much goop inside of us, and it all wants to get out" (page 274). It's hard to tell, though, if Georgie is just talking about the blood he sees or some deeper symbolic meaning.

Blindness seemed to be a big issue in the story. Georgie seems like he is somewhat blind, like when he tells the man with the knife in his eye that he "can't see what [he's] saying" (page 276). Georgie, although he seemed below par mentally at times, surprises the reader with his ability to help others. For example, when he came out of the operating room with the knife that was in the man's eyes, everyone seemed to be thoroughly surprised as "the talk just dropped off a cliff" (page 278).

One thing that I think furthered the confusion in the story was the characters' usage of drugs. Everything in the story had a kinda of surreal quality in my opinion. From Georgie's actions in the hospital to the trip out to the country, it was hard to get a sense of what was tangibly going on in the story.

I found I could connect much better to the next story, Home, by Jayne Anne Phillips. I thought this story really focused on the themes of dealing with the past, struggles, and strained relationships.

The story starts off describing the speaker as a 23 year old woman who has just moved back into her mother's home. The mom seems detached from the world, simply watching television at night and now wanting to get out. The speaker then looks at her mom's old photos and sees a different woman. Her mom was outside, at sorority parties. I liked how she says "the photographer had painted her lashes too lushly" (page 411), showing that her mother is now a completely different person.

The speaker then talks about her father and their estranged relationship. After being married for twenty years, her mom divorced him. The dream she has about her father is particularly disturbing. In the dream, the father caresses her thigh and ends up having an erection. This alludes to possible abuse in the past.

The speaker also has trouble dealing with her past lovers. Jason, who seems like her high school sweetheart and first love, had a mental breakdown after his brother died. The speaker still doesn't seem completely over him, still reminiscing about him. Daniel, also seems like an interesting character. Although he has another lover now, the speaker pleads with him to come visit, and they eventually have sex in the house.

The story ends with the mother coming back from church telling the speaker that she heard the two having relations in the bedroom. The mom has a hard time dealing with her daughter growing up and becoming a woman who makes her own decisions. The daughter, likewise, has trouble dealing with her mother who now lives a fairly mundane life in her own bubble. Both characters have struggles- the mom with her former husband and the daughter with her past loves. The story really focused on how everyone struggles with relationships and each other and how messy life can be.