44 pages • 1 hour read
Denis JohnsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Multiple stories in Jesus’ Son demonstrate that F**khead believes he has prescience and can see the future before it happens. This is most evident in the first story in the collection, “Car Crash While Hitchhiking,” in which F**khead knows a car accident will occur before it does. However, even outside of this, F**khead has moments where he seems to understand what will happen, and this assumption extends to other people, as well. For instance, while riding a train, F**khead remarks that, “Right beside me was the little cubicle filled with the driver […] In the darkness under the universe it didn’t matter that the driver was a blind man. He felt the future with his face” (80). F**khead’s knowledge of the future seems to reflect the ecstatic tone of the book, with its quasi-spiritual language and imagery. However, this is another demonstration of the extent to which drugs infect this narrative—that ecstatic writing can be another reflection of F**khead’s state of mind and the altered states of consciousness that the drug use puts him in. Whether or not F**khead’s knowledge of the future is real or a consequence of drug use doesn’t seem to ultimately matter, because F**khead has no ability or inclination to change anything he sees: Just as his vision doesn’t stop him from entering a car he knows will crash, it also doesn’t stop him from taking drugs, which instead requires multiple trips to detox until he succeeds at the end of the collection.
By Denis Johnson
Addiction
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American Literature
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Books that Feature the Theme of...
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Community
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Fear
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Forgiveness
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Friendship
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Grief
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Guilt
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Hate & Anger
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Mortality & Death
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Pride & Shame
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Safety & Danger
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School Book List Titles
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The Future
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The Past
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