Trainspotting

1) Looking at the main character, Mark Renton, describe how his life

follows the primrose path.

Drugs are so dangerous, they not only destroy the lives of the addicts but also the lives of the addicts families and loved ones. It affects more than the one person doing the drugs.

2) If Mark Renton's friends had not re-entered his life while he was

starting over in London, would his life have been any different?

I personaly think his life would have been different. He was trying to start a new life and actually do something with his life and put drugs in the past. He thought he was finished with that way of life, but when his friends entered his life he couldn't resist the tempation to try it just one more time. And after that it was all over for him. He was back to living the lifestyle that involved powerful and horrible drugs.Mark Renton does try many times throughout the movie to quit, but he keeps coming back to heroin every time he is reminded of it or comes in contact with any sort of drug. The movie shows the intense power that drugs can have over a person. Especially a person who once was addicted and was trying to put that in his past. Mark Renton relapsed and went back to his old ways of life because of the powerful influence that drugs can have over a person. However, it was a choice that Mark Renton made for himself,it was not that his friends forced him into the decision to go back into the lifestyle that included drugs. The film starts with a narration by Mark Renton, listing many events that happened in his life because of choices he made throughout his life. He says that he finds consumerism empty and appealing career options limited for a kid like himself so he decides to choose heroin. So in the end it was Mark Renton himself who made the decision to go back to his old ways of doing drugs.

3) How do you feel that this movie has impacted the lives of drug addicts? Or do you feel it had any impact at all?

I am not a drug addict or do I know of many people who are but nonetheless I still think it had a great impact on drug addicts throughout the world. The movie itself was a big hit and I am sure it hit home to many people who were as addicted as the 5 characters in the movie were. I think that many addicts saw how it tore the characters' lives apart; it even made them lose a baby because of their addiction. I think that the movie, hopefully, helped other addicts to realize what a mess the addiction really is, and hopefully the addicts who watched the movie sought help for their addiction. That is, of course, that they were even able to understand the movie being that they are addicts and could have been high watching the movie. Maybe the parents of addicts saw the movie and pushed themselves to do more to help their addicted child or relative free themselves from the hold that the power of those drugs can have on a person. However, no matter what I may say or think, what really sticks is the actual opinion of a former addict... "As a former heroin addict, what struck me when I saw "Trainspotting" was its ability to capture the attraction of the heroin high and the addict lifestyle, particularly for people who otherwise have few alternative sources of pleasure" (Maia Szalavitz, www.salon.com/media)(1).

4) Do you feel that this movie is a realistic portrayal of people who are on drugs? Or do you feel that this movie gives a negative and unrealistic view?

From what I have learned about drug addiction I think this was a very accurate portrayal of the effects of drug addiction. "Trainspotting" is one of the few films that manages to capture the lives of heroin users without either glamorizing or demonizing them.

5) Do you think that shaping and chaining can be used on any of the characters?

Well first I will start off with the definitions of both words before I give my answer.

Shaping: Sometimes a response is not visible or has not been demonstrated and thus cannot be reinforced. Skinner proposed the idea of shaping where successive