Theme Of Addiction In Denis Johnson's Jesus Son

Throughout Denis Johnson’s novel Jesus’ Son, the issues of addiction and its influence have been reflected. The author poetically took the readers to the mind of the narrator by sharing his thoughts, his views and his aimless journey through life, all influenced by drugs. This paper will discuss the narrator, as well as other characters that appeared in the story.

Firstly, the stories are all connected. They are all told by the same anonymous character (known as Fuckhead) that goes through different stages during his drug addiction habits. The story cycle starts with a car crash, which foreshadows how the characters crash their lives; some will die and others will inexplicably survive and try to get their lives together. The narrator is part of a circle of friends that use drugs and do not do anything with their lives. As mentioned in the novel, some would avoid any form of work because “it would mess with their high”, but actually steal and sell anything to be able to get some money and purchase more drugs. As implied, the foreshadowing at the beginning of the novel is only understood at the end when only just the narrator finds himself getting help. …show more content…
The narrator got around his friend and his greeting was “McInnes isn’t feeling too good today,’ Dundun greets Fuckhead. ‘I just shot him”. An individual who is thinking clearly would basically know the first thing to do would be to take McInnes to the hospital, but the abusers were just around wondering whether or not the injured should be disturbed. When McInnes died, the narrator went on defending Dundun saying, “…possibly he doesn't know what he does and may still have heart due to him not knowing what his left hand to his right hand is doing”. This basically explains how they could be hurting each other, but the fact that they are under the influence, they wouldn’t see clear