Previous
Symbols
In Trainspotting, heroin represents the complex relationship between addiction, society, and the conditions that draw people to addiction in the first place. Most of the main characters in Trainspotting use heroin, and for many of them, it becomes the central focus of their lives. Although the novel portrays the negative effects of heroin in great detail, heroin use doesn’t exist in a vacuum and has a complex relationship with the broader Scottish society that the characters live in. The book shows how certain social conditions (like a lack of opportunity for upward mobility, political cynicism, and the prevalence of violence) can attract people to drugs as a form of escape—only to then worsen the consequences of the very same social ills they long to escape. Furthermore, while heroin is perhaps the most visible force making lives worse for the characters, other factors like alcohol, aggression, and blind loyalty to one’s friends or one’s home play a similarly addictive role in the world of the novel, even for the characters that abstain from heroin.
Heroin, like these other factors, offers the promise of escape from a bleak world, and as Rent Boy tells Tommy at one point, the “kick” of heroin during a high is unparalleled. Nevertheless, this very same conversation sets off a chain of events that leads to Tommy contracting HIV, suggesting that no matter how powerful heroin’s “kick” is, it can’t justify its extraordinary cost. Throughout the book, the characters struggle to escape their addictions to heroin, just as they strain to overcome the social conditions that encourage them to use heroin in the first place. In both cases, however, the characters remain trapped in cycles by forces seemingly beyond their control.
Heroin Quotes in Trainspotting
The Trainspotting quotes below all refer to the symbol of Heroin. 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:
Relapsing
Quotes
Ah sing out, a twisting, pogo–ing mass of rubber. Iggy Pop looks right at me as he sings the line: ‘America takes drugs in psychic defence’; only he changes ‘America’ for ‘Scatlin’, and defines us mair accurately in a single sentence than all the others have ever done.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Myth: Begbie’s mates like him.
Reality: Begbie’s mates fear him.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
—It’s also a fuckin good kick.
Tommy looks at us. —Gies a go. Gies a hit.
—Fuck off Tommy.
—Ye sais it’s a good kick. Ah pure wantae try it.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Blowing It
Quotes
Ah have an unresolved relationship wi ma deid brother, Davie, as ah huv been unable tae work oot or express ma feelings about his catatonic life and subsequent death.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Funny thing wis, jist before this, ah remembered boastin thit ah’d niver OD’d in ma puff. Thir’s a first time fir everything. It wis Swanney’s fault. His gear’s normally cut tae fuck, so ye always bung that wee bit mair intae the cooking spoon tae compensate. Then whit does the cunt dae?
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Exile
Quotes
“I always find the term ‘opportunistic infection’ amusing. In our culture, it seems to invoke some admirable quality. I think of the ‘opportunism’ of the entrepreneur who spots a gap in the market, or that of the striker in the penalty box. Tricky buggers, those opportunistic infections.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Home
Quotes
—It’s the fuckin best. You ken the Mother Superior, Rents. Ah believe in the free market whin it comes tae drugs. Ah’ve goat tae gic the NHS its due though. Since ah hud this pin oaf n went oan the maintenance therapy ah’ve started tae believe thit the state kin compete wi private enterprise in oor industry, n produce a satisfyin product at low cost tae the consumer.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Tommy looks well. It’s terrifying. He’s gaunny die. Sometime between the next few weeks and next fifteen years, Tommy will be no more. The chances are that ah’ll be exactly the same. The difference is, we ken this wi Tommy.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Exit
Quotes
No. He had to stay in control, There was too much at stake. There was everything at stake. There is nobody looking at Begbie though. Those who are not oblivious to him, can feel the vibes he is giving out. They employ that special talent people have: Pretending nutters are invisible. Even his companions won’t meet his gaze.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Ironically, it was Begbie who was the key. Ripping off your mates was the highest offence in his book, and he would demand the severest penalty. Renton had used Begbie, used him to burn his boats completely and utterly. It was Begbie who ensured he could never return.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Now, free from them all, for good, he could be what he wanted to be. He’d stand or fall alone. This thought both terrified and excited him as he contemplated life in Amsterdam.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Trainspotting LitChart as a printable PDF.
Heroin Symbol Timeline in Trainspotting
The timeline below shows where the symbol Heroin appears in Trainspotting. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Kicking
...live version of “Heroin” by Lou Reed. Sick Boy helps Alison take a speedball of heroin (“skag”) and cocaine. Johnny offers Sick Boy a shot—but only if he uses Johnny’s equipment....
(full context)
...body. Eventually, the pain gets so bad that Rent Boy wants a little bit of heroin to stop himself from crashing too hard. He calls Raymie, but Raymie is away, and...
(full context)
...from using the toilet because it’s blocked. He thinks Rent Boy wants to shoot up heroin in the stall. Rent Boy gets angry, and at last the man lets him pass....
(full context)
Matty changes his mind and says Lesley isn’t a bad parent and heroin didn’t have anything to do with it. He says Dawn could easily have died from...
(full context)
...to explain the gaps on his résumé, Rent Boy says that he is recovering from heroin addiction and wants to be honest about it with any future employers. This seems to...
(full context)
Relapsing
...to try to justify Begbie’s behavior. He muses to himself that Begbie is like a heroin addiction because there’s no getting rid of him. Rent Boy doesn’t even really like Begbie,...
(full context)
Cock Problems. Rent Boy has such a hard time finding a vein for heroin that the previous day, he ended up using a prominent vein on his penis. Now,...
(full context)
...the second time then begins to feel a little nauseous, not realizing how pure the heroin was. He tries to keep it together while going to answer the door. Tommy comes...
(full context)
Back in the present, Tommy, who uses other drugs but isn’t a heroin user, asks Rent Boy what it’s like to take heroin. Rent Boy hesitates but feels...
(full context)
Tommy says he wants a hit of heroin. Rent Boy refuses, but Tommy insists. The two of them get high together, and Tommy...
(full context)
Kicking Again
...a short conversation, they part ways. Spud has been bored lately because he’s not doing heroin and most of his friends are busy.
(full context)
...nightclub who haven’t paired off yet, Rent Boy says he wishes he was back on heroin, just to see Spud’s reaction. He says the thing about heroin is it’s all you...
(full context)
Blowing It
...Spud on the other hand, freely admits to selling books in order to buy more heroin.
(full context)
...be hiring the woman out for sex. Rent Boy knows her and knows she uses heroin and that she and Sick Boy have been hooking up on and off.
(full context)
...Sick Boy says if Rent Boy is so righteous, why did he get Tommy into heroin? Rent Boy feels like Tommy had a choice but doesn’t say so. Just then, Tommy...
(full context)
Searching for the Inner Man. While Rent Boy has never gone to jail for heroin, he’s had to go to several counsellors for rehabilitation, and he feels this is also...
(full context)
Rent Boy isn’t sure how all of this relates to heroin addiction, and he thinks that in his own way, Dr. Forbes might be just as...
(full context)
When Rent Boy’s parents leave, Rent Boy asks Sick Boy for heroin, but Sick Boy is trying to stay away from the drug-selling crowd so that he...
(full context)
...Rent Boy now wants Sharon to leave so he can cook up a shot of heroin.
(full context)
...to all the children in the world starving to death. The only real problem with heroin is eventually you run out.
(full context)
Exile
...and is thrilled to see several familiar faces. The English are more likely to smoke heroin instead of using needles like the Scottish, so Rent Boy takes a drag. Everyone there...
(full context)
...are having sex only a couple feet away from where some people are shooting up heroin. Rent Boy figures maybe his theory about everyone in England smoking heroin instead of using...
(full context)
...and how Rent Boy has somehow been using needles for years without getting HIV. The heroin users in the support group look down on the two homosexual group members. Meanwhile, Davie...
(full context)
...had sex with Sick Boy. Kelly says Rent Boy isn’t a junkie and only uses heroin sometimes, which Alison scoffs at. Kelly doesn’t push the issue, and Alison has to leave...
(full context)
Home
...having sex with Matty a long time ago, back before either of them started using heroin. Begbie feels impotent, willing to fight over any insult to a friend but unsure what...
(full context)
...around drugs to do them. He thinks about Kelly and misses her. The thought of heroin bores him now, even though he admits that he’s probably a less interesting person than...
(full context)
...that Rent Boy is a great guy and no one should blame him for selling heroin to Tommy, implying that earlier Second Prize was blaming Rent Boy. In exchange for the...
(full context)
...into sex, but Rent Boy replies jokingly that that’s just because he had so much heroin in him that he couldn’t get an erection.
(full context)
...after he and Lizzy broke up, he went to Rent Boy and asked to try heroin for the first time, even though he used to look down on heroin users. Rent...
(full context)
...survive the winter in his weakened condition. Tommy asks Rent Boy if he has any heroin, and Rent Boy says he’s sober. Tommy says then the least Rent Boy can do...
(full context)
Exit
...Boy says he has to use the bus bathroom. Spud asks if he’s shooting up heroin. Rent Boy angrily tells him no, but actually he is.
(full context)
...from Sick Boy, but then Sick Boy approached him with an offer about some quality heroin.
(full context)
...up with Peter Gilbert, a successful drug-dealing middleman. They haggle over the price of the heroin, with Gilbert feeling disdainful toward all of them, secretly wishing he could work directly with...
(full context)
...hurting is Spud, who never hurts anyone (other than occasionally robbing them to support his heroin addiction). On the other hand, Rent Boy feels good—righteous even—about ripping off Begbie. In fact,...
(full context)
