Hubert Selby Jr.'s Requiem for a Dream
In Selby's 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream each character succumbs to self-gratification, which eventually and inevitably leads to self-destruction. The four main characters, Harry Goldfarb, Sara Goldfarb, Marion, and Tyrone C. Love each suffer from individual addictions, be it their dreams, illegal/legal narcotics, or even television. "Ultimately not only their bodies and minds, but their very souls are destroyed by their addictions" (Giles 104).
Harry, a middle-class addict who is constantly affecting the trust and property of his mother Sara Goldfarb, is in what seems to be a dream-like, drug-induced romance with Marion. The novel begins with Harry taking his mothers television set, this being a monthly routine, to pawn it for drug money. Harry, Marion, and Tyrone C. Love share one of the same dreams as Tyrone states in the novel: "We could double our money. Easy
We wont get stung out and blow it. We/d be cool and take care a business and in no time we/d get a pound of pure and jest sit back and count the bread" (9). Their ambitions are simple, obtain a "pound of pure", a significant amount of heroin, and sell it, save the money without blowing it on their own needs, and eventually be well off in the business. Each character has a different plan for their money. Harry and Sara to start a small coffee shop, and Tyrone to get established in "the business". The "pound of pure" later in the story becomes a metaphor for their dream, or a general concept of their ideal happiness. All four characters including Sara are looking to obtain a "pure" degree of happiness. And each in their own way will go to great lengths to obtain it.
Sara's story is by far the most catching, not on...
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... thinking of morale or others. Thinking first of their wants, most commonly their drug addictions. And eventually this behavior led to the destruction of each other, and themselves.
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Requiem for a Dream offers a haunting glimpse into the life of addiction and drug abuse. This book depicts four individuals and their addictions to cocaine, heroin, and diet pills. Each of the characters have their own American Dream while the addictions to their drugs are keeping them further away from achieving it. In the beginning of the book, all the characters wanted was more out of life. Harry and Marion wanted to become financially stable so they could own their own coffee shop and have lots of money to travel the world. Tyrone just wanted to make more money to have a better life and Sara wanted to look good on television by losing enough weight to fit into a red dress. While following these dreams, they got lost in reality and slowly
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