Dundun

The title of this story refers to a character who Fuckhead, the narrator, visits to get some opium. Fuckhead learns that Dundun has shot another character named McInnes who is fortunately still alive. Fuckhead goes inside of a house to see for himself that Mcinnes has been shot. It looks pretty bad so Fuckhead decides that he will drive Mcinnes to the hospital with Dundun and Jack Hotel tagging along.

Mcinnes dies in the backseat before Fuckhead makes it to the hospital. Dundun says to throw Mcinnes out of the car. Fuckhead and Dundun are disturbed that Mcinnes has died but they pretend not to care.The final paragraphs of this brief story add some background to Dundun's character:

"His left hand didn't know what his right hand was doing. It was only that certain important connections had been burned through. If I opened up your head and ran a hot soldering iron around in your brain, I might turn you into someone like that." (51).

Fuckhead believes that Dundun is not in control of his actions. Fuckhead says that people like Dundun are created through a process similar to a soldering iron being ran through someones brain, burning the important connections, a disturbing image to say the least. Fuckehad wants us to understand that dangerous people like Dundun do not exist in a vacuum. They are created by other people.

The lesson of this story is that a first impressions are not necessarily correct. It's tragic that Mcinnes dies and it is normal to want to blame the person who shot him -- but Johnson reminds us that blame usually lies with much more than just one person. Trying to understand why Dundun is the way he is is more honorable a task than writing him off as a sadistic murderer. Most people would choose the latter but Fuckhead and Johnson seem to think that this choice fails to capture the entire story. I believe this is the main lesson that Johnson hopes to teach his readers.

Other people have written online about "Dundun". Check out this short but insightful piece from treehousemag.com. As Denis Johnson teaches us, it is better to understand something from multiple perspectives than it is to go with your gut reaction. If you have any thoughts or questions related to "Dundun" please leave them in a comment. Thanks for reading.

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Car Crash while Hitchhiking Summary and Analysis

Summary

The story begins with the narrator waking up in a delirious state. The narrator has done a lot of drugs with a salesman, a Cherokee Indian and a college student. The narrator is in pain but he also seems strangely coherent. He states that he can sense things before they happen.

The narrator is picked up by a family in an Oldsmobile. The narrator knows that there will be a car crash but he chooses to say nothing and goes to sleep. The Oldsmobile crashes into another car and the narrator takes the baby into the night. Walking by the other car, the narrator notices a person lying on the ground. The narrator can tell that this person will soon die and later refers to him as the "dying man". The narrator is taken to a hospital where he sees the wife of the dying man. The wife shrieks like an eagle and the narrator states that hearing the shriek actually felt wonderful. The narrator then describes lying on a hospital bed and being given vitamins by a nurse. Then he describes an outdoor setting while directly addressing the readers of the story.

Analysis

In "Car Crash while Hitchhiking" Denis Johnson introduces us to the narrator that will remain throughout all of the stories in the book Jesus' Son. We do not learn the narrator's name until later in the book. It's a mysterious story without barely any explanation. The narrator's tone is similar to that of a journalist attempting to describe something as clearly as possible. The problem is that the narrator is high on several kinds of drugs which threatens the reliability of his story. The ending of the story presents the possibility that the entire story is just a hallucination occurring in the narrator's mind. Although we have no reason to suspect that the narrator is a bad person, his actions in the story make him seem self-interested. 

Another reasons why I believe this story occurs in the narrator's head is that he claims to possess the ability to see the future. I find it hard to understand why Johnson chose to include this element in the story. It does not serve a purpose for the story, seeing how the narrator does not act on his premonitions. The narrator is either too stoned or too tired to share his knowledge of the future. The only times the narrator expresses any feelings on the events taking place are when he sees the dying man on the road and when he hears the wife of the dying man shriek in the hospital. The narrator does not express grief during these moments but he does express feelings of awe.

"Car Crash while Hitchhiking" is an aberration of normal storytelling. There is a climactic event some exposition but none of the characters possess an arc and the story might be merely a figment of the narrator's imagination. There is more work than usual on the reader's end to find meaning because the story's purpose is unclear. 

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