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Part 1: Swing with OxyContin
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dreamland, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Pain Management and the Normalization of Narcotics
The Drug Business
Stigma, Shame, and the Opiate Epidemic
Community as a Remedy to Addiction
Summary
Analysis
The Man arrives in Xalisco in August 1993. He attends Xalisco’s annual Feria del Elote. Because of his and his business partner’s success in the heroin trade, they are able to fund a soccer team to compete in the fair’s annual tournament—something that, prior to the success of the Xalisco heroin business, “only legitimate businessmen” had been able to do.
The Feria del Elote, or Corn Fair, is a yearly harvest celebration that features such activities as games and live music. The fact that the Man and his Nayarit friend are able to fund a soccer team, as before “only legitimate businessmen” had been able to do, solidifies their role as businessmen, too.
Themes
The Man returns to Xalisco for every Feria del Elote after this. In between these August celebrations, he lives in Reno selling heroin. One day, a man named Daniel approaches the Man at a bar he frequents and suggests he take his black tar east, to Columbus, Ohio, where there is no existing market for cheap, high-quality product. In 1997, the Man contacts Daniel and establishes contacts in Columbus. After six months off in Xalisco, the Man’s funds grow low and he sets out to establish cells in the Eastern U.S. He is successful in Columbus, where there is a large white population and a lack of competition for black tar heroin.
This is significant because it’s the first time black tar heroin has existed east of the Mississippi River. The Man’s motivations are also noteworthy here. At this point in time, he hasn’t heard of OxyContin or the rise in opiate addiction in America’s heartland—he is merely following up on a lead about a possible new, untouched market of opiate users.
Themes
