In The Night of the Gun David Carr bluntly tells the life of a hard core drugy, his own. These means the reader is exposed to both the exhilarating and horrific sides of a drugged up life. One of the high points is when Carr tells how he and his friends would take spontaneous trips. Carr describes how they ended up flying to Chicago, "Flying down to Chicago for the night came up, one thing led to another, and we called Leaping Lenny, a pilot we knew" (71). This excursion seems exciting, you almost envy someone who can just fly off to Chicago with no worries. Anyone would love to have that type of life, it sounds so carefree. In this way, Carr's life seems glorious and as if he has no problems, but if you thought that, you would be very wrong.
We see the darker, addictive side of Carr's life. He alienates everyone around him when he is high or drunk or a combination of them. He fights those who are supposed to be his friends and is so messed up that he doesn't even see that he is doing these things. At one of his friends weddings in Wisconsin he and a couple buddies are acting as the grooms men. Even though they are under the influence of narcotics, the wedding goes off without a hitch, there are no problems until after that is. One of his friends, Ralph, believing he had crack, started playing games with him. Ralph drives closely by Carr a few times, teasing him, not letting him get in. Finally, when Carr can get at him, "I got the jump on him, pulled him through the window, and before he knew what happened, he was facedown in the flower bed in front of the country club" (63). The crazy haze Carr gets in while on drugs causing him to lose his head and to not see straightly. Instead of being logical he attacks his friend over a little crack.
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2 comments:
I enjoy how you show both the bright and dark side of this character's life. While random trips might be fun for a while, I think it highlights this person's overall personality troubles. He is an extremely energetic individual, and this seems to get him into trouble with drugs. I'm slightly surprised, though, that nothing worse has happened. I suppose that comes later in the book.
All life styles seem to have ups and downs. For example, a hard working student sacrifices some fun to have a promising future. It is the opposite with druggies like you point out. They sacrifice the future for some fun.
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