One
could argue that "Emergency" is just
another story about drug use in the 70s. There are a million of those, right? Their argument is valid, because indeed that
is what the plot is about. However, I
believe the story is much more than just a simple LSD trip. I believe that LSD is simply the mode in
which the story is propelled forward.
Johnson is allowing us to see inside the uninhibited minds of the two
main characters, the unnamed narrator and Georgie, into their true fears and hopes.
We are taken on the journey of the protagonist through an hallucinogenic trip, but one of the things that Johnson does so well is allow us as readers to reflect on life, death, and the potential of rebirth. Again and again throughout the story, gruesome images of death are used. We begin the story with visions on blood. Georgie states, “There’s so much goop inside of us, man…and it all wants to get out.” This is later echoed in the story with the image of Georgie skinning a rabbit that is accidentally hit with his truck. By this act he is making his line come to pass, by allowing the “goop inside” to get out.
Another strong use of the imagery of death is when the protagonist and Georgie find a drive-in theater. Due to the drugs the protagonist does not see a drive-in theater but a military graveyard, “filled with rows and rows of austere, identical markers over the soldiers’ graves.” Because this story does take place in the ‘70s, the Vietnam War was on the top of all young men’s minds. The constant fear of the draft, and that they would, like so many others, end up in a cemetery with nothing more than a small identical marker in remembrance.
Each of the main characters seems to be seeking some form of redemption or rebirth. Georgie asks to go to church, and the protagonist states repeatedly that it is the end of summer, which symbolically means to me that this is the end of an era in his life. After the crazy drug trip ends for the protagonist, I believe he finds what he is looking for. “I felt the beauty of the morning. I could understand how a drowning man might suddenly feel a deep thirst being quenched. Or how the slave might become a friend to his master.” Maybe he is the drowning man, and now with the light of day he can finally keep his head above water, to finally find what he has been seeking within himself all along.
We are taken on the journey of the protagonist through an hallucinogenic trip, but one of the things that Johnson does so well is allow us as readers to reflect on life, death, and the potential of rebirth. Again and again throughout the story, gruesome images of death are used. We begin the story with visions on blood. Georgie states, “There’s so much goop inside of us, man…and it all wants to get out.” This is later echoed in the story with the image of Georgie skinning a rabbit that is accidentally hit with his truck. By this act he is making his line come to pass, by allowing the “goop inside” to get out.
Another strong use of the imagery of death is when the protagonist and Georgie find a drive-in theater. Due to the drugs the protagonist does not see a drive-in theater but a military graveyard, “filled with rows and rows of austere, identical markers over the soldiers’ graves.” Because this story does take place in the ‘70s, the Vietnam War was on the top of all young men’s minds. The constant fear of the draft, and that they would, like so many others, end up in a cemetery with nothing more than a small identical marker in remembrance.
Each of the main characters seems to be seeking some form of redemption or rebirth. Georgie asks to go to church, and the protagonist states repeatedly that it is the end of summer, which symbolically means to me that this is the end of an era in his life. After the crazy drug trip ends for the protagonist, I believe he finds what he is looking for. “I felt the beauty of the morning. I could understand how a drowning man might suddenly feel a deep thirst being quenched. Or how the slave might become a friend to his master.” Maybe he is the drowning man, and now with the light of day he can finally keep his head above water, to finally find what he has been seeking within himself all along.
I really love this story. The lines you picked out are so beautiful to me.
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