Addiction: Crank By Ellen Hopkins

Kevin Browne-Gretzinger
Student #: 5219704
February 3, 2017
Addiction: The World That Everyone Should See – Featuring Crank by Ellen Hopkins

The novel Crank by Ellen Hopkins follows through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl named Kristina who simply refers to herself as “Bree”. The novel continues with the pathway of her life as it leads into substance misuse and addiction. Through her work, Hopkins creates a genuine look into the progression of an addict from a very personalized point of view. The style of writing, being very poetic, allows readers to understand the story at a deeper, emotional level. Some components of the story I disagree with. However, Hopkins still succeeds at challenging many norms regarding addiction,

Often times individuals see the end result associated with addiction, unable to see how they were before the addiction took hold of their lives. Through Crank, readers are able to experience how a successful high school student with high academic aspirations leads to abandoning these goals due to substance abuse. Hopkins makes excellent use of common knowledge of teenagers being especially vulnerable in their attempt to find a place of belonging. Kristina found this belonging with Adam, leading to her meeting him in the back room of the bowling alley where she first used methamphetamines: “Somehow I didn’t care about back-room parties. It was my turn. I’d been invited.” (p. 82) This allows readers to empathize with Kristina, even though they may not have used drugs in the past, as they remember that similar need for

I was able to draw from my own experiences as a teenager, filled with feelings of needing to “fit in”, and applied it to Kristina’s situation. This allowed me to relate to her story and generated compassion for her choices. In high school, I volunteered at an organization called Start Me Up Niagara. Working during the meal program on weekends, I interacted with many individuals who were suffering from addiction. Only seeing the end result, the negative consequences resulting from their addiction, it was very hard to understand how an individual can lead to this path. One man I met spoke about his bachelor’s degree in psychology, which made me wonder how someone who was relatively successful ended up in their current position. It was easy to judge them for their choices, with my immediate thoughts wondering how they ended up making such poor decisions leading to their current