Throughout Drown, the drug dealing lifestyle is represented as a fairly mundane and without any special glamour. Both representations in the book describe the dealers as fairly normal people with their own problems, which in both cases involve relationships. The people that are buying the drugs are also fairly normal people being described as no one special. None of the people that by the drugs are police or politicians, they are just normal people who want an escape from their day to day lives.
The contrast represented by this dynamic in how drug dealers are viewed is fairly surprizing. The 1990s when this book was published, and the previous years in the decade marked a large amount of hype around drug dealing through popular rap as well as the war on drugs which started about 15 years before the publishing of the book. Rappers such as Nas and Dr. Dre became stars in the early and mid 1990s and were famous for talking about drug use as well as how drugs were used as a means to become rich. Dr. Dre is often seen as a kingpin-like figure in the sense of his gang-like lifestyle and involvement with crime. Jay-z is famous for expressing his rags-to-riches lifestyle which introduced the idea of being able to sell drugs to start out a career that would catapult you to fame. However, none of these ambitions seems to be represented by the characters in Drown that are selling drugs.
The main distinction between drug dealers in Drown and some who are popularized is the lack of bravado or sense of entitlement because they think they should be making tremendous amounts of money. Those in Drown do not think that drug dealing is glamorous in any way, and the sense of maturity that we get from the characters is fairly surprizing. The characters view drug dealing as just another job that they can compete fairly easily and to make enough money to get by. The character also don’t mention drug dealing much in the narratives. In both cases the main problem that they have deal with relationships and how those progress and regress to affect their lives in various ways.
Drug dealing is also a profession that Diaz does well to address in the context of the poorer areas in New Jersey. That fact that the characters don’t really believe that drug dealing is a nice way to get rich quick shows the understanding of how it really works. The dealers are selling product in very small quantities and just sell to get by. In addition, each seller has his own circumstances underlying why they are selling. The lack of education is one major contributing factor that spans over the whole community, as well as the lack of emotional stability in one case.
Overall, drug culture in Drown is something that isn’t stressed as a mainstay of life but is surely present. The drugs are not over glorified, but are still present as a means, if not the most respected, to get by. Those who use the drugs and those who sell them are really judged by anyone in the perspectives we get, and drugs aren’t really the main focus of the stories. The drug culture in Drown present a direct contrast to the popular views of drug culture that spanned media in the years prior to the publishing of the book.
In this aspect, I feel that Diaz is being down to earth about these drug deals. As you said, he doesn't glorify it in any way, but shows it to us as it would look like in the real world. This reminds me of how the government shows how much glory a soldier can get when he/she goes to war, which analogizes with these rappers talking about how people can get so rich off of the drug trade. On the contrary, there are these war documentaries which show veterans returned without all his or her features in tact, missing limbs and left homeless on the streets. This analogizes to Diaz's work, showing how drug trade isn't that glorious and is just a means to get by.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you enjoyed writing this post a bit more than most. It's interesting, this seemed like a more realistic portrayal of drug dealing, given it's hard to believe most dealers live some glamorous lifestyle. It also fits with the general theme of the book; an unusually successful depiction of drug dealing wouldn't really go with the more cloudy outlooks of characters. The fact that Diaz was able to to do this probably improved the quality and accuracy of its writing significantly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anthony, that Díaz' take on drug dealing is a hyper realistic, non-glamorous approach. He takes us through the lives of some of these lower level street dalers and we see that there isn't anything super exciting about their life. They are strugling to pay bills and make ends meet just like anyone else in their economic situation. In fact, dealing drugs is really just another day job as Díaz portrays it, with the added risk of being caught by the cops.
ReplyDeleteI also think that this portrayal is more realistic. I think for many people, it is just a way to get by. For most of the characters in the stories, if you had asked if they would rather be dealing drugs or doing something more productive I'm sure they would pick the latter. Pop culture suggesting that all drug dealers are loaded is unrealistic and Diaz puts drug dealing in a more realistic light.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty surprised as well when I noticed how casually the characters discuss drugs. In "Sonny's Blues," it's a big deal, and a large focal point of the story. In the stories of Drown, it's just another unfortunate aspect of life, like how Ted Lavender just happened to drug himself up with tranquilizers and nobody really questioned that. In that way, the drug use had a bigger impact on me than if had been called out more by the characters; it shows that drugs have completely been assimilated into their lives.
ReplyDeleteYou cover a number of solid points here, Pranav. I'll agree with you and my above classmates, in that this more down-to-earth visualization of drug dealing is part of what makes the story so realistic and what would appear to be accurate. I think the widespread, practically mainstream usage of these substances throughout the story sharply contrasts our current society, for instance, where such behavior attracts much more attention. Rappers who've used drugs to launch themselves into fame, or into a sort of "gangster" image, don't represent the average drug user at all. In a setting like the Dominican Republic, it's easy to see how drugs simply fit into the grand scheme of things without any of the unnecessary glorification; drug dealing becomes just another job, drug usage becomes just another way to escape the stresses of everyday life.
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