Addiction, Depression, and Control Theme Analysis

When she was in middle school, Gifty’s teenaged brother, Nana, died of an accidental heroin overdose. Following his death, Gifty’s mother fell into a deep depression. Many years later, Gifty is studying neuroscience, hoping to unravel the science behind addiction and depression. She understands that these are two sides of the same coin: addiction means that the brain doesn’t have enough restraint against reward seeking, and in depression, it has too much. As a child, Gifty intuits that restraint is at the heart of avoiding addiction. But the novel shows that her initial attempts at self-control are nearly as devastating as her brother’s addiction and her mother’s depression. In the end, Gifty’s research into addiction and depression is important precisely because her story demonstrates how little control people have over themselves and their behavior.

As the novel slowly reveals, there were hints that Nana was prone to addiction before his injury; there was something inherent in his brain chemistry or character that made him vulnerable. For example, when he started playing basketball, he would spend hours every day practicing his free throws. Like Gifty’s limping mouse, which isn’t actually hurt but learns to limp in anticipation that it will experience an electric shock when it tries to seek out a reward, there was something in Nana that self-control couldn’t touch. Yet in response to her brother’s addiction, Gifty became an extremely rigid rule-follower, practicing the restraint she subconsciously wishes he had. She imagines alcohol as a dangerous stranger, trying to tempt into dark alleys. She doesn’t drink, do drugs, have sex, or skip class. She believes (incorrectly) that her rules will save her, her brother, and her mother from harm. But they don’t: Nana still dies and her mother attempts suicide. And in the process, the novel suggests that Gifty becomes addicted to restraint itself. When her friend Anne tries to repair a harm to their relationship, Gifty ignores her, feeling proud of her restraint rather than sad over losing an important relationship. Ultimately, this is why Gifty’s later success in changing the addicted mouse’s behavior (it finally stops seeking its reward) is so important and powerful: Gifty can finally accept that it sometimes takes an outside force, rather than a person’s self-restraint, to moderate or change one’s behavior.