Images of Addiction :: English Literature

Images of AddictionAddiction, craving, dependence, enslavement, habit,obsession these are some of the many ways of describing a personsneed for something or someone. Addiction and the way its presented isthe main focus of devil books, Junk by Melvin Burgess a contemparynovel indite in 1996 and The Man With The wrestle Lip by Sir ArthurConan Doyle, a short report card from the Sherlock Holmes series written in1892. I will be comparing the two similarly themed stories and discusshow they show images of addiction.Both of the books use many different techniques to make the story asrealistic and believable as possible. In Junk each chapter is writtenfrom the point of view of a different character in the initiative personnarrative. This style of writing gives the story a draw of credibilityand often involves different characters telling the same event butfrom a wholly different perspective. This is not just veryinteresting for the reader it as advantageously gives you the chance t o get deepinto the characters heads and to find out what they are thinking. Youcan in like manner formulate your own opinions of characters as many of them,particularly Gemma, really involve the reader and try to talk themround to their points of view. In contrast The Man With The TwistedLip is very formal and written byout by the same character, DrWatson. The details are very precisely written like a report of whathas happened with everlasting references to street names and timings togive the effect that everything in the story has really happened oneexample is found herself exactly at 435 walking through Swandom Laneon her way back to the station.Another method the authors use to convey a sense of realism is thelanguage. In Junk there is a lot of teenage slang and swearing bothin the dialogue and the text itself, which adds a sense that you aregetting the full truth however worrying it may be, not a sugarcoated version. I also thought that the way the story was written asif th e characters were talking to you worked really well because youfelt the characters were telling you, not just writing it down.Another important aspect of creating realism from the language was theway the characters began to use junkie slang, drug terminology,unheard of at the beginning of the novel but common place by the end.This really helped to show how the lives of the main characters hadreally changed as the book progressed. Cultural references are alsoimportant because they help people to relate to the story and put the