#JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE CHAPTER SUMMARIES DRIVER#

His casual but quite evident lack of compassion is perhaps one of the darkest, most chilling elements of the story. The trucker encountered by the narrator during his search for help after the accident is ambivalent (at best), negative (at worst) about getting involved. The Truckerappears in Car Crash While Hitchhiking His unnamed wife appears only briefly, also at the hospital, where she is portrayed as initially being quite self-possessed, but later, when she hears of her husband's death, she experiences a tearing grief that the narrator seems to admire for its intensity, its very existence (see 'Quotes,' p. He is first seen by the narrator at the scene, severely injured but still alive - although somehow, the narrator (perhaps through drug-heightened instincts) knows he's going to die.

#JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE CHAPTER SUMMARIES DRIVER#

The unnamed dead man is the driver of the car that collides with the vehicle in which the narrator is riding. The Dead Man and his Wifeappears in Car Crash While Hitchhiking The mother is given no distinguishing characteristics. The baby is portrayed as being innocently bewildered by what's happened, and perfectly safe. After the accident, he is portrayed as being strangely, perhaps illogically, angry at the fact that his wife is unconscious. At the beginning of the narrator's encounter with them, the father is portrayed as being cautious about driving in bad conditions, perhaps a bit too much so. The father is portrayed as being strangely, perhaps illogically, angry at the fact that his wife is unconscious. Only the mother is given a name - Janice - and all three survive the accident. The family consists of a father, mother and baby. The Family in the Accidentappears in Car Crash While Hitchhiking There is the a strong sense of reminiscence about these stories, almost nostalgia, perhaps even a bit of bemusement, as though the narrator can't quite believe his younger self did the things he's writing about (see 'Style - Tone'). It's also important to note that there is also the strong sense that the stories are being told with a degree of distance from the events they're describing - distance not only in terms of being older, but also in terms of perhaps being wiser, possibly less lonely, certainly more straight and/or sober. In 'Dirty Wedding,' for example, he seems to be deliberately antagonizing the vulnerable Michelle, while in 'Beverly Hotel' he clearly indicates that he's keeping both the women he becomes involved with at a distance. This impression results from the almost reverence with which the narrator frequently refers to the safety and friendliness of The Vine (see 'Objects/Places'), the portrayal of himself in his few friendships (particularly with Georgie, Wayne, and Jack Hotel) as seeming almost desperate for companionship, and even from his near-obsession with the Mennonite couple in 'Beverly Hotel.' It's important to note, however, that in spite of this apparent loneliness he also, and just as clearly, is reluctant and/or unable to get too close to people, particularly women. On a more sub-textual, implied level, the reader gets the impression that the narrator is struggling to keep a deep, desperate loneliness at bay - that he is searching for a physical, spiritual and sexual home. He is occasionally referred to by his nickname, Fuckhead, a derogatory epithet that, in the minds of both the narrator and the friends who call him by that name, very clearly defines him as someone who makes stupid mistakes. He is, for example, never referred to by name. Other than that, there are very few details - little or no sense of childhood background, of the forces that shaped and/or defined him (and in particular his drug use), or of the forces that have apparently moved him away from drug use and into a clearer mindset. Some things seem very clear - that all the stories are being told by the same person, that that person is male, that he is a heavy drug user, that he's relatively young (in his early twenties) and that he is less than successful at sustaining relationships with women. In the collection as a whole, and in the individual stories, there is very little information about who is speaking.

Jesus and john wayne chapter summaries