Allegory In Denis Johnson's Tree Of Smoke

A short story is a genre of writing loved by many for provoking thought and contemplation. According to Edgar Allen Poe, a short story is defined as being a story that “can be read in one sitting.” But contrary to Poe’s point, a short story needs much more analysis to be fully understood than just “one sitting.” In Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke, there are a multitude of literary elements working to give a unique perspective to each person reading it. Johnson uses symbolism, diction, and syntax among other elements to create an allegory about the majority of young soldiers in Vietnam. This is portrayed through the shooting of a monkey. The story takes us through that experience and provides the reader with the emotions and thoughts going through

the protagonist's head before and after he kills the monkey.

The experience brings the main character to question war in its entirety as well as have a catharsis as he realises his loss of innocence.

On a deeper level Johnson is portraying the majority percentage of young soldiers shipped off to Vietnam, many to their deaths.

Tree of Smoke commences with the news that President John F. Kennedy has been shot and killed. JFK’s assassination not only puts the story into historical context but also provides insight into the mindset of the soldiers. J.F.K’s death came merely a month and 20 days after announcing a withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. Men and women that were expecting to return home to their lives and families have to now be uncertain about their futures. JFK was a symbol of what a strong American was supposed to embody. With him dead, it had to have left many soldiers wondering how they were to survive if a man like JFK couldn't. To add to the mental instability of the whole situation, protagonist Seaman Apprentice WIlliam Houston Jr. has just stayed up the entire night drinking. As he walks through the jungle on the hunt for wild boar, Johnson explains William’s current state by outwardly stating that “he was aware that he was terrifically on edge.” Johnson

further exemplifies this by appealing to the senses to describe his surroundings. The cries of tens of thousands of birds creates an ominous setting around him. If William stops and listens for a minute, he can even hear his pulse “snickering” in the heat of his flesh. Heartbeats are a widely used symbol for mortality and suggests that he feels that he very well could die in these woods. Diction choice with the word “snickering” almost mocks William. As he walks, Johnson describes a nearby seagull that “seemed to be carrying out an argument with itself.” This represents the internal struggle William is having about war and its brutality. On one hand, he protests war as represented by the seagull’s “protesting squeaks” and on the other hand he feels it is his moral duty as represented by the contradictory “lower pitched cries that sounded like, huh! huh! huh!” Later in the short story this symbol is brought up again with the monkey. Collectively all the auditory sounds of the jungle and the mental instability suggests that he is not sure if he is really hunting or being hunted.

When William first glanced sight of the monkey his immediate reaction was to grab his gun.

Without even thinking about the consequences he raised the gun, aimed it at the monkey's head, and pulled the trigger. In that instant William made the insensible decision to kill the innocent monkey. After being shot the monkey proceeds to twirl around then drop onto the jungle floor in terrible agony. William stands terrified of the convulsions of the monkey as it tries to stay alive. Johnson creates anthropomorphism in personifying the the monkey by having it struggle in a way similar to the way a human would. After being shot, the monkey “sat back against the tree trunk with its legs spread out before it, like somebody resting from a difficult job of labor.” Diction choice with the word “somebody” and the image of somebody resting after doing a hard job makes the reader feel connected to the monkey as if it were a human being. The metaphor is further extended as William picks up the monkey and cradles it back and forth like a baby. He even grabs the monkey by the buttocks and the head the way a parent would cradle their newborn child. In a desperate attempt to calm the crying monkey William says “hey” but it is no use. By trying to communicate to the monkey using human language is Johnson exemplifying just how much the monkey resembles a human in the allegory. From first glance, Seaman William sees merely an animal grasping to a tree. But as the animal becomes closer and clearer

to his view he begins to undergo the realization that the monkey is in fact very similar to himself in many ways. The monkey’s struggle is allegorical for the brutality of war and its effect on not only those being shot but also those who are at the other end of the rifle.

Williams loss of innocence is the main underlying the theme of the short story. By shooting the monkey, he undergoes a revelation about war. Prior to shooting the monkey, William is described as restless and uneasy wandering the jungle alone. In reality he is merely a kid with little or no experience with war. When he aimed his rifle to shoot the monkey, he “took the monkey’s head into the sight.” Yet in the preceding paragraph it mentions that “The shot had been low, exiting from the abdomen” thus suggesting he was untrained. After the shot William has an internal struggle with what he has done. He feels like his stomach splits in two and his head is about to explode. The hyperbole used to describe his pain shows how much he truly was innocent before he was thrown into war. He constantly mentions how he feels bad for the animal, when his mission for being in the jungle is to be hunting humans. The monkeys struggle as it rolls on the ground physically symbolises Williams internal conflict. The monkey is constantly “moving its head side to side like someone following the progress of some kind of conversation, some kind of debate, some kind of struggle that the jungle, the morning, the moment was having with itself.” The monkey is watching William struggle just as he is watching the monkey struggle. The true nature of his innocence and immaturity is portrayed in the final two sentences when he feels “as if everything was all his fault, and with no one around to know it, he let himself cry like a child. He was eighteen years old.” Physically William is expected to be a man. A soldier fighting for the freedom of his country against the communists seeking to infringe of that liberty. But mentally, he is unprepared for holding such a responsible duty. The tragedy caused by the Vietnam war makes it one of the greatest failures in American history. Tens of thousands of Americans lost their lives in consultation for nothing. On top of that, even more soldiers returned home with PTSD, heroin addiction, and jobless. This led to streets filled with homeless veterans. With the short story being written in 2007, Johnson is taking the perspective of someone looking back on the war as a failure and an allegory for the loss of innocence of a generation.

At one point in every teens life they are faced with the struggle between adolescence and adulthood. Choosing to take on adulthood can be scary and painful but it is a necessary step in life. What Johnson is trying to get across in his allegory is that some of the children sent to war were not ready for that jump. The nature of war is brutal and unforgiving to all those caught in its crossfires. It is easy to hear about news stories talking of the war but to be up close and personal is a whole different story. This is a perfect example of appearance versus reality. William may have thought he could handle war from what he has heard and seen. He even goes out with his rifle trying to act tough even though he was scared in the woods. But when he actually if faced with dealing with the consequences of shooting another living being he understands how severe war really is and how he was not ready for it.