Carried away on the flood of the world

“Carried away on the flood of the world” is Doris Dillon’s image for Johanna Leonberger’s unsettled condition. Joined to Dillon’s descriptions of Johanna as “not real and not not-real,” as having “been through two creations,” and as “forever falling,” the phrase presents her not as securely returned to a single identity but as suspended between states of being. Its force lies in that unresolved passage: Johanna is moving, yet the image offers no firm ground or arrival.

The Image of the Flood

Dillon’s metaphor makes the world an active current and Johanna someone borne along by it. The wording emphasizes exposure to forces beyond her control rather than a chosen direction; “carried away” suggests movement without establishing where it leads. The image therefore gives her condition both momentum and instability: she is in motion, but not necessarily advancing toward a settled destination.

Two Creations and Uncertainty

The surrounding phrases sharpen the metaphor into a paradox. “Not real and not not-real” refuses a clean division between presence and absence, while “been through two creations” frames Johanna’s life as having undergone a fundamental, repeated remaking. “Forever falling” extends that upheaval into an ongoing condition rather than a completed change. Together, Dillon’s formulations make transformation central to how she understands Johanna, but they do not specify what the two creations consist of or establish whether this state lasts throughout the story.