Trainspotting

The most obvious theme running through the narrative and guiding it is that of addiction. The Skag Boys will go to great lengths for drugs. For instance, Mark digs opium suppositories out of his own feces, and Simon pimps out a young girl for drug money. However, the author is careful to paint well-rounded portraits of some of these junkies. Mark and Danny in particular display positive traits; they both are empathetic, as seen by Mark’s dismay at how he’s let his mother down in Chapter 8, or Spud’s frustration with the racism shown Uncle Dode in Chapter 19. Given that the book was first published in 1993, before addiction was more widely understood and acknowledged as a disease, this realism is an envelope-pushing point: These men are sick with addiction but that does not make them bad men.

Simon shows signs of sexual addiction from the first part of the book. He has sexual relations with multiple girls throughout the narrative, including Alison, and he fathered a child prior to the events of the novel with fellow addict Lesley. By the end of the novel, he is with another girl in France, suggesting that his sex addiction may have taken him away from his substance addiction.

The book repeatedly raises the contrast of a “family of friends” versus a biological family. Mark has disassociated from his family while his niece, Nina, is still a part of it. The Skag Boys seem plagued by issues with belonging to their wild party circle of friends. In Chapter 4, Simon mentally writes off his friends, even though he knows he will inevitably end up partying with them soon. His effort emphasizes the difficulty of escaping a social circle where drugs connect everyone. This point is also highlighted in Chapter 3, when Mark attempts to sober up and rents a room where none of his junky friends could find him.

Despite the relative absence of blood family, the Skag Boys recognize that “real” family is the most important. This theme appears when Baby Dawn, Simon’s little girl, dies; it’s a shattering effect on everyone, even haunting Mark months later. It’s also evidence in Davie’s envy of Alan’s having a son. It’s again seen at Matty’s funeral: Looking at her and Matty’s daughter, Lisa, the mother notes that “Lisa seemed to be the only evidence that Matty’s life was not a futile one” (295). Children are redemption to addicts. Mark also wishes that his mother could have a better son, suggesting that the addicts have given some family up for lost.

Class issues are touched on repeatedly throughout the book, as when Simon mocks the people at a faux “classy” bar: “[‘]The working class at play,[’] he derisively snorts” (131). While the working-class patrons look down on the Skag Boys for not contributing to society, the Skag Boys look down on them for playing the part that’s expected of them.

Mark seems most adept at “shifting” between classes, which annoys his friends. For example, Frank gets annoyed after he and Mark sit across from some Canadian tourists, and Mark ends up talking to them about literature. Similarly, Mark surprises Simon by speaking with apparent knowledge on theater in another chapter. Mark is even able to get a lesser charge for stealing because he reverts to his “posh” accent. This all suggests that, while Mark will get along better in the world by feigning to be of a higher class, he dresses his mannerisms down to fit in with the other Skag Boys.

Mark and Danny’s disagreement about the value of a squirrel’s life sums up the sensitive issue of class. The two get in an argument because Mark claims the creature is only “vermin,” and Danny retorts that “they posh wifies think people like us ur vermin, likesay, does that make it right thit they should kill us” (160).