Samuel Johnson the Just Representation

Samuel Johnson

The Just Representation of Nature" in Literature

Both literature and art in general address universal issues. Thus, things are represented in such a way as to speak to a universal reader. Shakespeare's works, as Johnson had observed, are close to perfection precisely because they are revelers of universal truth about life and humanity. There are nevertheless literary works that speak to a narrower public and focus on rather uncommon aspects of life.

A short story such as J.D. Salinger's a Perfect Day for Banana Fish is an American classic. The story indirectly contours the disastrous effects of war over a former young soldier who had actually lived the experience. The story moreover emphasizes the destiny of the human race that evolves from childish innocence to adulthood, a state conquered by evil and ungenerous acts. Seymour is dramatically affected by the war, and in the surprise ending of the story he actually commits suicide, confirming the suspicions his wife's family had about his state of mind: "...He said it was a perfect crime the Army released him from the hospital -- my word of honor. He very definitely told your father there's a chance -- a very great chance, he said -- that Seymour may completely lose control of himself."("A Perfect Day," 6) the name of Seymour Glass is translated by the innocent Sybil Carpenter as "See more glass," obviously hinting at enhanced perception on the one hand, and at fragility and transparence at the same time. Seymour is attracted by the world of his little friend Sybil, the fish who gorge too many bananas and then cannot get out of their banana holes are a symbol of the material world, and of the human condition in general, of the men who are too greedy and evil and "behave like pigs":."..they swim into a hole where there's a lot of bananas...But once they get in, they behave like pigs. Why, I've known some bananafish to swim into a banana hole and eat as many as seventy-eight bananas...."("A Perfect Day, 6) Seymour is obviously disturbed by the symbols of the material life, which eventually make the adults become evil or superficial like his wife: "He spurns a materialistic life. When Sybil sees the bananafish with six bananas in its mouth, the young man kisses her foot in gratitude because her vision no longer comes from earth but from within. She shares his non-material view."(Cotter, 98) His suicide is the most revealing event in the story: he sees Sybil's innocence, but already notices that she is jealous and mean (because she pokes little dogs with balloon sticks), and thus she will probably grow into an adult that will hurt others or kill: "Sybil... reveals to Seymour the finality of that unbridgeable gap between human aspiration and human possibility."(Lane, 32) Thus, in the two stories, Salinger expresses one more his view of the innocent child who grows into an evil adult, who afterwards is likely to be part of a war and to cause suffering to another human being.

At the opposite pole, Denis Johnson's short story Emergency depicts a narrower reality. The story is a blurred account of a night at the Emergency room of a hospital. The narrator is unreliable because his fuzzy story is old under the influence of drugs. However, even if the meanings may be less 'universal', the story is a significant literary achievement, which impresses rather through its dim atmosphere and the powerful imagery, rather than the story itself. The symbolism of the story is very suggestive. The title "Emergency" hints at the main event in the story: Georgie, an orderly at the Seattle hospital saves in a mysterious a man who had come at the E.R. room with a knife thrust deep into his eye. Ironically, the other eye was artificial. The doctor who is presented with the case takes it as something that is part of the routine, but admits that it is beyond his competence: "He took his time getting down the hall to her, because he knew she hated Family Service and her happy tone of voice could only mean something beyond his competence and potentially humiliating. He peeked into the trauma room and saw the situation: the clerk-that is, me-standing next to the orderly, Georgie, both of us on drugs, looking down at a patient with a knife sticking up out of his face. 'What seems to be the trouble?' he said."(Johnson) the image of the knife piercing the eye is symbolic: the author hints at the impaired sense of true vision that people have in general. The fact that the case is resolved by the befuddled orderly and not by the experienced and knowing eye-doctor is also significant. Georgie can perform a miracle unknowingly, without having any precise medical knowledge. The dream-like state is which he is therefore triumphs over science and reason. The author thus suggests that all reality is strange and spectacular, and that we are always in a state of "emergency." The ordinary world can always give place to the miraculous one. After this particular event, the two friends, Georgie and the narrator take a ride in the car through the snow. On the road they hit a rabbit but manage to save the little baby rabbits that were about to be born. Another saving act is therefore performed by Georgie. The narrator has a vision of angels falling from the sky: "that seemed to be a military graveyard, filled with rows and rows of austere, identical markers over soldiers' graves [...] on the farther side of the field, just beyond the curtains of snow, the sky was torn away and the angels were descending out of brilliant blue summer, their huge faces streaked with light and full of pity" (Johnson, 81) the image is of course, an allusion at the spiritual world that coexists with the material one. The spell is however shortly broken and the story teller realizes he has accidentally killed the rabbits they had just saved, during his vision. This turn of events is extremely important: Johnson thus proves that miracles themselves are mutable and unstable, just like the concrete reality. Nothing is absolute, not even wonders, and every time someone is absorbed by a certain part of reality, as the narrator was in his vision, something else happens in the other, unseen world. The whole of reality can never be thus seen in one glance.