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Begbie
Simon “Sick Boy” Williamson (sometimes also called “Simone” as a joke) is one of Rent Boy’s closest friends, although the two joke about being enemies then grow apart for real over the course of the novel. Rent Boy claims that Sick Boy’s nickname originally meant sick in the sense of twisted but it takes on new meaning after Sick Boy starts doing heroin and gets sick during withdrawal periods. Among his friends, Sick Boy has a reputation for having sex with almost any woman he wants, including Lesley, whose son Dawn is implied to be Sick Boy’s. After Dawn’s death, seemingly of sudden infant death syndrome while Sick Boy and Lesley are high, Sick Boy starts controlling his drug use, although he continues to have casual sex and often uses sex as an excuse to scam women out of money. Sick Boy views relationships as transactional and eventually starts his own informal business of managing local sex workers, many of whom use heroin. Near the end of the novel, Sick Boy has grown so distant from Rent Boy that he considers cutting off their friendship, but Rent Boy beats him to it by running off with the money on their last heroin deal. Sick Boy represents how addiction—both drug addiction and other addictions like sex—can take over a person’s life and cause them to manipulate other people and compromise on their personal morals.
Sick Boy Quotes in Trainspotting
The Trainspotting quotes below are all either spoken by Sick Boy or refer to Sick Boy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Kicking
Quotes
The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling. Ah wis jist sitting thair, focusing oan the telly, tryin no tae notice the cunt. He wis bringing me doon. Ah tried tae keep ma attention oan the Jean–Claude Van Damme video.
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Ah never wanted anything mair in ma life than fir her tae stoap screamin.— The bairn’s away . . . the bairn’s away. . . Dawn. . . oh my god. . . oh fuckin god, wis aboot aw ah could pick ootay the horrible sound. She collapses oantae the threadbare couch.
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Kicking Again
Quotes
Rents picks up a stane and flings it at the squirrel. Ah feel likes, sick, ma hert misses a beat as it whizzes past the wee gadge. He goes tae pick up another, laughin like a maniac, but ab stoap um.
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Sick Boy Quotes in Trainspotting
The Trainspotting quotes below are all either spoken by Sick Boy or refer to Sick Boy. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Kicking
Quotes
The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling. Ah wis jist sitting thair, focusing oan the telly, tryin no tae notice the cunt. He wis bringing me doon. Ah tried tae keep ma attention oan the Jean–Claude Van Damme video.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Ah never wanted anything mair in ma life than fir her tae stoap screamin.— The bairn’s away . . . the bairn’s away. . . Dawn. . . oh my god. . . oh fuckin god, wis aboot aw ah could pick ootay the horrible sound. She collapses oantae the threadbare couch.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Kicking Again
Quotes
Rents picks up a stane and flings it at the squirrel. Ah feel likes, sick, ma hert misses a beat as it whizzes past the wee gadge. He goes tae pick up another, laughin like a maniac, but ab stoap um.
