| The fictional and adventurous story, Emergency, | | | | Most importantly, the doctors and nurses were |
| is written by Denis Johnson in the first-person, | | | | unable to figure out a proper treatment plan for |
| and unreliable form of narrative. During this | | | | Terrence Weber, the patient who walked into the |
| stimulating and fictional short story, Dennis | | | | emergency room with a knife in his eye, and |
| Johnson emphasizes the confessional nature as | | | | alleged that his wife stabbed him in his sleep for |
| one which lacks credibility. The lack of such | | | | looking at the lady sunbathing next door. When |
| credibility comes in the form of: | | | | Georgie was finished disinfecting the patient, he |
| untrustworthiness, incomplete information, and | | | | returned with a hunting knife in his hand. |
| hallucination, which at times stem from the use of | | | | Apparently, Georgie had removed the knife from |
| drugs, infantile immaturity, lies, deception, | | | | Weber's eye without realizing the impact of his |
| mistakes, or even manipulation. | | | | actions. The most the doctor had to say was, |
| ZZ Packer states in one of her analysis entitled, A | | | | "Where did you get that?" Additionally, one nurse |
| Conversation on Writing, "The power of the | | | | said after a short while, "Your shoelace is untied." |
| first-person point of view... is a confessional | | | | This gave Georgie time to put the knife down |
| storytelling voice" (Delbanco184). She continues | | | | while tying his shoelace without one clue of what |
| her analysis by summarizing such narrative as | | | | is taking place (Page 275). |
| being based on: unreliability, ignorance, personal | | | | Next, the altered state of consciousness based on |
| bias, intentional deception, and even insanity | | | | the unreliable narrator is obvious in this dialogue, |
| existing in the narration by the unreliable narrator | | | | "Do you realize it's going to snow? He was right; a |
| (196). For example, in the fictional story | | | | gun blue storm was shaping up. We got out and |
| Emergency; Johnson begins with, "I'd been | | | | walked around idiotically...the crispness and tang of |
| working in the emergency room for about three | | | | everything green stabbing us" (Page 277). The |
| weeks, I guess" (Creative Writing 272). He | | | | hallucination effects of the pills are obvious in this |
| continues, "I just started wondering...coronary | | | | dialogue. Additionally, while stumbling into a military |
| care...cafeteria...looking for Georgie...he often stole | | | | cemetery, the characters now looking in the sky |
| pills from the cabinets" (272). The confessional | | | | saw angels descending with huge faces streaked |
| nature of the first-person "I" is obvious in this | | | | with light and full of pity, which caused Georgie to |
| unreliable narrative point of view as the story | | | | open his arms and cried, "It's the drive-in man! |
| unfolds the relationship with Georgie and the | | | | The drive-in...They are showing movies in |
| unreliable narrator. | | | | a...blizzard." Georgie screamed. "I See, I thought it |
| Furthermore, the incomplete nature of the | | | | was something else" (Page 278). |
| unreliable story teller is associated with symbolic | | | | Based on the narrative, the setting of the story is |
| drug use and/or abuse. The narrator states, | | | | in the summer and not winter; however, the |
| "...Georgie, the orderly, [is] a pretty good friend of | | | | dialogue between Georgie and the first-person |
| mine; he often stole pills from the cabinets" (272). | | | | unreliable narrator shifts to winter based on the |
| This example shows the untrustworthiness and | | | | analysis of hallucinatory impact from the pills they |
| self-interest in the unreliable character first-person | | | | are eating, which shows a character flaw and an |
| narrative. The story continues with, "Let me | | | | altered state of consciousness from the drugs. |
| check your pockets, man...I found his stash" (Page | | | | Obviously, there is a lack of alignment with reality |
| 273). Furthermore, the confessional nature in the | | | | and the narrator's mental state of being with |
| story indicates, "I stood around...chewing up more | | | | nature. The reflecting unreliability in judgment and |
| of Georgie's pills. Some tasted the way urine | | | | the dialogue highlighting infantile immaturity in |
| smells, some burned, some tastes like chalk" | | | | information regarding the present climatically |
| (Page 274). In this narrative there is a variety of | | | | condition, shows the lack of cognitive |
| stimulating drug use and abuse. One could state | | | | interpretation and faulty memory-thus unreliable |
| that drug use results in incoherent and incomplete | | | | unfolds! |
| statements from the narrator and cast great | | | | Based on this narrative, one must beg the |
| doubt on the credibility of the first-person | | | | question, "What story Wilson's wife will receive |
| cognitive thinking pattern, which operates in a | | | | form the unreliable narrator, regarding her |
| state of altered consciousness. | | | | husband's treatment in the Intensive Care Unit? |