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Part 2: A Tidal Wave Forming
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
Over the course of the 20th century, a Christian revival movement unfolded across Los Angeles and later spread throughout the country. In particular, there was an “explosion” of the Pentecostal faith, which was embraced by Russian immigrants who came to the United States after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Among this surge of devout immigrants were Anatoly and Nina Sinyayev, who settled in Portland. Their 11 children grew up attending conservative Russian Pentecostal church services, and they were forbidden to indulge in American pop culture. As a result, the Sinyayevs’ children began to keep secrets from them. OxyContin arrived in Portland in 2004. The city witnessed an increase in overdoses amidst a medical culture that continued to espouse the benefits of opiates. Alan Levine, who’d been sober for so many years, started taking OxyContin before returning to heroin.
The Azusa Street Revival (named for location of the church where it held its first meeting), began in 1906 as an African American movement. The revival eventually expanded beyond L.A., spreading the Pentecostal faith to other communities and regions across the U.S. In particular, the movement grew popular among Russian immigrants in New York City. The Azusa Street Revival shows how central communities are in spreading ideas and practices—good and bad.
Themes
Children of Russian Pentecostals were especially attracted to OxyContin. Ukrainian-born Vitaliy Mulyar turns to prescription drugs when a friend offers him Vicodin; if a doctor prescribed painkillers, he reasons, “how bad could they be?” Vitaliy then becomes an OxyContin dealer to support his drug habit. After being arrested, Vitaliy turns to heroin and many other Russian Pentecostal children follow suit. The Sinyayevs’ daughter, Elina, becomes addicted to heroin, as do two of her siblings. In 2011, Elina’s brother Toviy dies of an overdose. Detectives find balloons of heroin in Toviy’s bedroom; over the coming months, these balloons and Toviy’s death “bec[o]me a test case for Clackamas County.”
Vicodin is an opiate painkiller that contains hydrocodone, which is also the main active ingredient in OxyContin. Like so many others, Vitaliy didn’t see how dangerous painkillers were because they were prescribed by doctors and didn’t have as many stigmas attached to them. Toviy’s death in 2011 will later be investigated as a Len Bias case, wherein the individual who supplied drugs that resulted in a fatal overdose can receive life imprisonment.
Themes
