Jesus' Son

Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son is one of the more cohesive cycles we have read in this class in terms of narrator. While many of the cycles have had this omniscient narrator throughout, Jesus' Son's narrator not only tells us the story, but is the central protagonist. Each story is told through the eyes of "Fuckhead," a disillusioned, alcoholic, drug-addicted hospital orderly and aspiring writer. He travels throughout the midwest United States telling us his tales of meeting others like him and going through his drug and alcohol fueled adventures.

While on the surface Fuckhead appears to be a strung out loser, as I read each story I began to sympathize with the character more and more. He's very real. Although he's not relatable to me by any means, I find his actions and thought processes fascinating. He is so UNlike me that I find myself caring what happens to him and what he's doing. Deni Johnson makes him such a real, visible character that its hard not to sympathize with him. He's a human being in need of some serious assistance. Even as a reader you can't turn your back on him. 

The way in which Johnson is able to garner sympathy for Fuckhead is through the use of first-person narration. If he had written a cycle of short stories that were in the third-person then we would never have seen inside Fuckheads, well, head. He would just seem like a loser to us, someone polluting the world population that we would care lived or died. However, we are able to see what's going on in there. From the first story, we get this split persona of Fuckhead the drug-addict mess and Fuckhead the semi-caring, kind human being. In the first few pages of "Car Crash" he talks about all the bourbon he drank, hashish he smoked and amphetamines he guzzled down. We realize from the start that this man has a serious addiction problem. He remains in this inebriated state throughout the story, as well as throughout the cycle. However, once he is involved in the car crash that kills a man, Fuckhead shows his caring side. He holds on t o the baby that was in the car with him, making sure it was safe. He goes around the wreck seeing if he could help in any way. He then shows his all too human side once at the hospital. Once the woman is told that her husband has died in the car wreck, she begins hysterically crying and screaming. Fuckhead says, "It felt wonderful to be alive to hear it! I've gone looking for that feeling everywhere." While it may seem that Fuckhead himself is being entirely UNsympathetic to what is going one, he is just showing human nature. He had just been in involved in a deadly car wreck in which he survived without a scratch. Now he's sitting there listening to the torment of a woman who has just lost her husband. This makes him appreciate his life. No matter how terrible his life is going, and how terrible he knows it will be, he knows it is better than dying or have a loved one die on you. Anyone would feel like this. He's just happy to be alive. By the end of the cycle Fuckheads life is being to get back on track. He's shown us his moments of drug-addicted misadventures such as roaming around with Georgie or going bar to bar looking for a belly dancer. He's also shown as a kind side like when hes the only person who wants to bring McInnes to the hospital and cares if he lives or dies. He's a lost soul wandering the earth looking for some respect. He so desperately wants to be liked and just cannot seem to get what he wants. The drugs and alcohol are able to curb his appetite for human interaction and love, but it just never happens for him. Hes a sad character, one you have to not only sympathize with, but pity.