Analysis Of Nic Sheff's Novel Tweak

Nic Sheff’s memoir Tweak discusses his story of meth and heroin addiction. He narrates between the a time of his life that leads to a violent relapse, before addiction, and life with addiction prior to the violent relapse in California.
The book starts with Nic finding a drug dealer after eighteen months of being sober. He encounters Lauren, whom was finding an excuse to relapse, and both embarked on a relationship that consisted heavily of drugs and sex. Shortly after, they meet Gack who Nic later proposes to start dealing meth. In between, Nic retells his life before these events. This includes his acceptance from prestigious universities, smoking marijuana everyday, spending a lot of time with his father as a child and half-siblings, getting …show more content…
Nic felt alone and tried to find something or someone that would help cope with the changes in his life. As soon as he began using drugs, relationships were destroyed and felt even more isolated than before. His low self-esteem contributed more into the depression he experienced and the addicts around him also conveyed this feeling. After trying multiple times to quit drugs, no one believe in him and soon neither did he. It gave him a sense of despair and hopelessness in most of the book. Throughout the narrative, Nic emphasized he was on his own in the addiction and no one could really understand him. Until the last few pages, perseverance persisted when Nic finally reasserted himself and was determine to stay clean. Lastly, patience was an underlying theme, but was crucial to his life. All the people who loved Nic and wanted the best for him could not save him. Nic had to come clean on his own with effort and they only had to be patient for his detoxification. The book was more than a memoir, for Nic wrote a fragment of his life that displays the consequences of our choices and shines a negative perspective on drug use. The last conclusion is that with writing about this he sought to tell the audience that not everyone is alone and within a severe complication, such as addiction, nothing is …show more content…
The book is formatted in colloquial language, and it uses slang and intense language from the author’s point of view. The most complex word choice that Sheff ever uses is rare and pertains more to drug use and medical treatments. However, if the audience doesn’t know these terms, it’s not difficult to infer or use context clues. Also, the author decided to write using past and present tense (in the book’s contextual setting). As mentioned in the summary, Nic describes his life before drug use and the relapse in San Francisco, during, and after. This allows the audience to get to know Nic personally. He explained that his life was normal until he began experimenting with various drugs and using them daily. Sheff gave the reader details of his family, step-siblings, and how these close relationships deteriorated (anecdotes). It was substantial for him to add these details because one could speculate on factors that drove him to start using and feed the addiction, including his parents’ divorce. Adding the second part of his story was necessary, for the audience gets hooked and wants to know what eventually happened to Nic.Various flashbacks were consistent through the book and foreshadowing occurred frequently in his life which added background so the reader could comprehend the situation on a deeper level. Another effective technique was using short sections, dividing the