An informal word for human feces used by the community of scavengers who live on the Behala landfill. The landfill is full of stupp because the majority of the city’s residents don’t have access to running water or toilets, so they wrap their feces in paper and throw it in the trash. Mulligan references stupp often to allude to the general poverty of the fictional city he writes about and to remind the reader of the putrid conditions in which the landfill’s residents are forced to dwell. Even though the landfill’s residents spend their lives wading through stupp, they can never get used to the smell.
Stuppa/stupp Quotes in Trash
The Trash quotes below are all either spoken by Stuppa/stupp or refer to Stuppa/stupp. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1: Chapter 1
Quotes
No, never—because what we mainly find is stupp.
Related Characters:Raphael Fernández (speaker)
Related Symbols:Trash
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
4
Explanation and Analysis:
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The timeline below shows where the term Stuppa/stupp appears in Trash. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: Chapter 1
...he hates to say it, the thing he finds most often at the dumpsite is “stupp,” which is human excrement. It’s often wrapped in paper and thrown in the trash, on...
(full context)
...he uses to sort through trash. Gardo and Raphael work together, rapidly sorting through the stupp and gathering plastic.
(full context)
Part 1: Chapter 2
...a rich area, meaning it contains valuable trash like food and it isn’t contaminated with stupp.
(full context)
Part 1: Chapter 5
...The other kids are excited because McKinley residents have toilets, meaning the trash had no stupp. Gardo and Raphael start to realize how important this bag is to the police and...
(full context)
Part 3: Chapter 9
...stadiums, and into a lush “paradise” by the ocean, much nicer than the “sludge and stupp we call Behala.” Rat knows that Raphael is scared, so Rat keeps a fast pace...
(full context)
Part 5: Chapter 5
...he could have seen the first boy to pick up a $100 bill instead of stupp, but he knows they can’t hang around. At the bottom of the sack, Raphael finds...
(full context)