Hubert Selby Jr.'s Requiem for a Dream

Hubert Selby Jr.'s Requiem for a Dream

In Selby's 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream each character succumbs to self-gratification, which eventually and inevitably leads to self-destruction. The four main characters, Harry Goldfarb, Sara Goldfarb, Marion, and Tyrone C. Love each suffer from individual addictions, be it their dreams, illegal/legal narcotics, or even television. "Ultimately not only their bodies and minds, but their very souls are destroyed by their addictions" (Giles 104).

Harry, a middle-class addict who is constantly affecting the trust and property of his mother Sara Goldfarb, is in what seems to be a dream-like, drug-induced romance with Marion. The novel begins with Harry taking his mothers television set, this being a monthly routine, to pawn it for drug money. Harry, Marion, and Tyrone C. Love share one of the same dreams as Tyrone states in the novel: "We could double our money. Easy...We wont get stung out and blow it. We/d be cool and take care a business and in no time we/d get a pound of pure and jest sit back and count the bread" (9). Their ambitions are simple, obtain a "pound of pure", a significant amount of heroin, and sell it, save the money without blowing it on their own needs, and eventually be well off in the business. Each character has a different plan for their money. Harry and Sara to start a small coffee shop, and Tyrone to get established in "the business". The "pound of pure" later in the story becomes a metaphor for their dream, or a general concept of their ideal happiness. All four characters including Sara are looking to obtain a "pure" degree of happiness. And each in their own way will go to great lengths to obtain it.

Sara's story is by far the most catching, not only because her tale of self-gratification is caused by several different addictions, but also because half of her destruction stems from her innocence alone, causing the reader to feel twice as much sympathy for her character, than for any of the others in the novel. Sara Goldfarb is a lonely old woman. She has an obsession with television, partially because of her addiction to her dream. Sara even goes as far as to give up meals for the television set, and as she is watching she feels emotion for the characters: " ...Sara was so happy for them, then checked her money and realized she would have to go without lunch for a few days, but it was worth it to have the TV set. It wasn't the first time she gave up a meal for her set..." (13). Sara is constantly watching the same unspecified television program and one day receives a call from them ("Lyle Russel of the McDick Corporation") (25). "Mrs. Goldfarb, how would you like to be a contestant on one of televisions most poignant, most heartwarming programs? Oooo me? On the television???? She kept looking from the phone to the television, and back again, trying to look at both at the same time" (25). After receiving this phone call the rest of Sara's life goes into preparing for the television show and waiting for the McDick Corporation to call her back with more information. She soon begins to try several different diets, none of which are a success until she visits a doctor recommended by a friend. Her doctor puts her on diet pills, which subconsciously becomes her third addiction. Without seeing the warning signs Sara's life takes a turn for the worst after she becomes unhealthy from lack of eating, begins hallucinating, and ignores the advice and concern from her son Harry and instead chooses self-gratification.

"It doesn't make any difference if I win or lose or if I just shake hands with the announcer. Its like a reason to get up in the morning, Its a reason to lose weight so I can be healthy. Its a reason to fit into the red dress. It's a reason to smile already. It makes tomorrow alright. Sara leaned a little closer to her son, What have I got Harry? Why should I even make the bed or wash the dishes? I do them, but why should I? I'm alone. Seymours gone, youre gone" (143).

Sara's dream becomes a reality in her mind as she sits and imagines herself on the show with her son Harry, soon her days are gone, and she loses count of her pills. She returns to the doctor to report that her pills aren't having the same affect on her, he disregards he complaints and increases her prescription. Eventually Sara can wait no longer for the return call from the McDick Corporation, Sara, reduced by the pills to a woman with an absurd appearance, and an unhealthy mind, decides to invade the McDick Corporation headquarters and demand that she be on television. The employees startled by her manner and appearance the Corporation turns her over to the Bellevue Hospital. Her demise from here is tragic and graphically described as she receives shock treatments: "Sara could feel her bones snapping and smell the burning of her own flesh as barbed hooks were thrust into her eyes yanking them out of their sockets and all she could do was endure and feel the pain and smell the burning flesh..." (237). After the television, the dream of being a contestant, and the drug pills, "Sara is reduced to a zombielike creature virtually unrecognizable to two of the widows from her complex when they visit her in Bellevue." (Giles 111). In an attempt to fulfill herself, Sara Goldfarb destroys herself.

Ironically enough, when Harry was concerned for his mother's newfound addiction to diet pills, he was completely oblivious to the demise that lay ahead of him, the result of a heroin addiction. Harry and Marion also suffering from multiple addictions, narcotics, and sexual relations with each other, give up one for the other. Harry and Marion's romance fades because of the "calling" of their drug addictions. When Harry or Marion craved Marion reduced herself to prostitution through an old psychologist who loaned her money, after Harry had convinced her too. Despite the fact that through Marion's absence Harry became physically sick. When she returned he was unable to make love to her, and yet he continued to believe that his drug-influenced lifestyle was promising. Eventually the degradation of Marion becomes so severe that her narcotics addition will completely obliterate her ability to love Harry, or anyone else, including herself for that matter. "Not only will she lose any interest in sex, she will come to regard her body exclusively as a means of obtaining heroin; she will prostitute herself and acquiesce in the commodification of her body." (Giles 100). Marion soon becomes weak, and even more desperate for the drugs that she craves, so Harry and Tyrone set out to find some. The heroin