61 pages • 2 hours read
Irvine WelshTrainspotting
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapters 1-3
Part 1, Chapters 4-6
Part 1, Chapters 7-10
Part 2, Chapters 11-13
Part 2, Chapters 14-17
Part 3, Chapters 18-19
Part 3, Chapters 20-21
Part 4, Chapters 22-24
Part 4, Chapters 25-28
Part 5, Chapters 29-31
Part 5, Chapters 32-33
Part 6, Chapters 34-36
Part 6, Chapters 37-39
Part 6, Chapters 40-42
Part 7, Chapter 43
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Part 1, Chapters 7-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Kicking”
Chapter 7 Summary: “It Goes Without Saying”
Chapter 7 returns to Mark’s point of view. He is awakening from the haze of a high in another person’s apartment. It’s the sound of screaming that brings him back to earth. Mark is still high, and it takes him time to process what’s happening, but it’s clear something is seriously wrong. Simon emerges from another room in the apartment and “his voice reminded us ay the demon’s in the film The Exorcist. It shit us up” (52).
Lesley, the woman whose apartment they are in, just found her baby girl, Dawn, dead in her crib: “Ah can feel death in the room before aheven see the bairn. […] That wee. So fuckin small. Wee Dawn. Fuckin shame” (52). It appears to be a “cot death” (55), meaning Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The junkies react in mixed ways. Some suggest they should stay with Lesley, while others believe they should leave.
Simon seems the most shaken up of all, which at first confuses Mark. Then, he realizes that Simon is the father of baby Dawn. Simon claims he will get clean. The chapter concludes with Mark deciding to cook up a fresh hit, and the dead child’s mother, Lesley, asking if he can prepare one for her as well.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Junk Dilemmas No. 64”
Mark is high, lying on the floor of his childhood home. His mother is calling for him, but he’s too high to go to her: “Ah love Ma, love her too much [.] […] So much that ah don’t want her tae have a son like me” (57).
Chapter 9 Summary: “Her Man”
Tommy and a friend are having a drink at a pub when they witness a man hitting his girlfriend. Nobody in the bar intervenes: “The lassie’s eye is badly swollen and shuttin. […] She’s a skinny lassie n she looks like she’d snap intae pieces if he hit her again” (59).
Finally, Tommy, who is large and muscular, tries to defend the woman. The man tells him to stay out of it, and the woman then sticks up for her boyfriend: “[‘]That’s ma man! That’s ma fackin man yir talkin tae! [’] Tommy’s too shockedd tae stoap her as she leans ower an digs her nails intae his face” (60).
The men leave the bar in shock over the scenario. They board a bus feeling “sick n nervous” and barely speaking to one another about the incident. However, they also realize that they will soon enough be “boasting like fuck” about what happened while they are with the other Skag Boys.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Speedy Recruitment”
Danny and Mark are sitting at a pub preparing for job interviews. They currently receive welfare from the government and to maintain this, they must attend a certain number of interviews regularly. They have to walk a fine line to make it look like they are trying to gain employment while never actually getting a job: “Well, what ye huv tae dae is tae act enthusiastic, but still fuck up the interview. As long as ye come across as keen, they cannae say fuck all” (63).
The chapter then progresses to give a brief insight into each man’s job interview. Danny’s interview promptly falls apart as it’s revealed that his resume is mostly lies. Mark’s interview goes well and, afraid that he is going to get the job, he ends up purposefully sabotaging it. When asked if he can explain the gaps in his employment history he replies, “Yes. I’ve had a long-standing problem with heroin addiction” (65).
Danny and Mark meet up again for a drink after their “successful” interviews. They celebrate with a drink and some drugs.
Chapters 7-10 Analysis
The topic of death—which has previously appeared in Chapter 2 when Mark refers to himself as a “coffin dodger” and in the discussions surrounding HIV/AIDS—is central in these chapters. It’s thus ironic that the innocent baby Dawn is an early victim, dying from apparent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The only other death portrayed thus far was that of Uncle Andy who, presumably, was not a drug addict. While the junkies are the ones tempting death, the “innocents” are the first to die.
The significance of family also appears repeatedly in these chapters. Chapter 7 shows an intriguing clash between the social “friends family” of junkies and an actual biological family-that-could-have-been: Lesley, Simon, and baby Dawn. Recognizing this, Simon swears he is going to come clean. Mark then reflects on how he’s let his mother down and how much he loves her in Chapter 8.
The Skag Boys seem to be painfully aware that their social circles are part of what makes kicking addiction so hard. It all speaks to another dilemma of addiction, namely, to kick the habit many people must disassociate from the old friends and comfortable social connections they’ve known for years. It’s more than a physical withdrawal issue, it’s also a social withdrawal issue.
Chapter 10 introduces the reader to the social welfare system that Mark and Danny are cheating. This anecdote raises an interesting point on linguistics, as Mark seamlessly transitions from his heavy dialect to “proper” English in the interview. Such a discrepancy in his character is also alluded to previously in Chapter 4, when he unexpectedly converses about German playwright Bertolt Brecht with some English girls who stop him for directions on the street. The intriguing juxtaposition shows Mark as an intelligent, adaptable man and makes his inability to extricate himself from the grips of addiction all the more poignant.
