Emergency is set in the emergency department of a hospital. In this interesting and unique tale, readers are introduced to an unreliable narrator and his equally questionable friend. Both in reality and as a result of drug induced hallucination, Johnson exploits the use of place in both setting up and accentuating the themes of the story.
The narrator has been working in the hospital as a clerk for the last few weeks. He had his friend, Georgie, abuse drugs, and Georgie takes them illegally from the medical supplies in the hospital. The nature of the story lends itself to being set in a hospital as, clearly, this makes the drug use both easier to fashion and more dire as the stoned men are caring for sick and vulnerable people. The concept of an orderly and a clerk being under the influence of drugs while at work in a hospital setting is both unsettling and dark. Although at times amusing, this is a dire situation. The same could be said about the emergency department of a hospital; both unpredictable and surreal, the place literally holds life and death within its grasp.
Through the setting of the emergency department of the hospital, the story verges on the surreal. As the narrator is on drugs it is possible that his account of events is unreliable. It is also feasible that many of the happenings are part of a drug fuelled trip. Johnson uses the place of the emergency department as an appropriate backdrop for the various characters and incidents that he introduces to his readers. The constantly changing environment of his kind of hospital ward serves to accentuate the randomness experienced by the characters throughout the story.
Based on the information in the story itself, it is set in the summer. However, conversation between the two friends moved into winter during the narrative. Clearly, here is a difference between the reality of the situation and the narrator's hallucination of being close to nature. Moving between such contrasting seasons demonstrates the state of mind of the narrator. If something as fundamental and scientific as the seasons can be interpreted as fluid, it is possible that everything in the story is equally so. In this respect, the author has used setting and place to demonstrate the interior and exterior world of the unreliable narrator.
The story is based upon two hospital staff members which experiment illegally with the drugs used by medical professionals. The nature of this concept allows the author to use place to his advantage in all ways. Firstly, the hospital is an ever changing, unique environment and therefore lends itself to random happenings, and events that could seem surreal even to someone who was not under the influence of drugs. Secondly, however, the hallucinations experienced by the narrator mean that the place can be as fluid as his state of mind.
Johnson has both well-chosen and well-developed the sense of place in this story. The fluid and random nature of an emergency department perfectly reflects the state of mind and the experiences of the narrator. Both on a literal level and a metaphorical one, the hospital setting provides a backdrop for the main themes of the story.
References
Johnson, D. (2002). Emergency. Jesus’ Son. Reclam Philipp Jun
