Trainspotting critical essays

Rather, the novel is clearly showing that actually, the problem isn't the drugs alone, it is the combination of mental health issues and drug usage, because when people feel broken, they are often too terrified to stop their indulgences, because they don't want to feel the full weight of their hopelessness.

They relapse in Section 2, and for many alcohol is the worst of their abuse, even though heroin seems more pressing, simply because of the legal status of those chemicals. The legal troubles also indicate the true nature of these substances—that they are powerful substances with unfortunate consequences.

In order to understand the novel, the reader must know that the genre is not hippie fiction, it is horror. The novelist is not painting drugs as interesting or intriguing, although to some people, some drugs are useful, like coffee in the morning, or antihistimines in the Spring.

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh portrays a drug addict who rejects any conventions of normalcy in the pursuit of an alternate reality. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis does the same through the depiction of a rich and greedy Wall Street tycoon.