Jesus’ Son, written by Denis Johnson is composed of eleven short stories, which employ a sober narrator to recall his wild young adult life. The result is a book that not only thrills, but explores the absolute lows of life as well. The characters in Jesus’ Son are constructed by the narrator to amplify the traits he possesses, as the reader knows him only as Fuckhead. Furthermore, Jack Hotel’s character in “Out on Bail” is merely an alternate persona of the narrator and does not exist outside of the him. The text suggests Fuckhead suffers multiple symptoms associated with a dissociative disorder, such as dissociative identity disorder. Fuckhead’s apparition of the mind, further emphasizes the narrator as a young drug addled man, whose movement …show more content…
Jack Hotel amplifies characteristics the narrator possesses: criminal, irresponsible, and a severe drug addiction. Parallel events occur with the two carrying out actions simultaneously. Their reunion is brought about after they experience women trouble and then commit a crime together. The fork in their path is the mere thought process the narrator has as to what could have happened if he didn’t have his girlfriend to share the heroin with. The narrator employs a mirror as a motif to exemplify this parallelism, “Jack Hotel was beside me in the mirror, drinking” after he fought with his girlfriend (Johnson 32). Hotel isn’t standing next to him in some bar, because he is a part of the narrator. Fuckhead goes on to speak about how the presence of Hotel comforts him as he is just like him. A mirror appears in the story once more as it is held under Hotel’s nose to check for breathing after his overdose (34). A mirror holds multiple meanings, reflection relates back to the parallelism, but a mirror can also be used to look at consequences. In this case the consequence of death after frequent drug use and criminal activity that stems from