Renton contemplates another HIV positive friend, Davie, who contracted the virus after sleeping with a girl who had been raped. As Davie did not use drugs, he is allowed by the community to ‘ live a normal life’. Nevertheless, Renton knows that because of Tommy’s habit, and the prison of the West Granton projects that he has been placed into; Tommy is doomed (Welsh 397). Through this, Welsh shows us the blame of the epidemic being placed on the junkies. They are banished and kept separate from the rest of the community, so that Leith may be cleansed of people ‘like’ Tommy and Mattie.
In LETB, Harry’s crucifixion and the brutal rape of Tralala, are perhaps the most harrowing examples of scapegoating. Selby himself seems to scapegoat Harry, as a representation of the alienation and repression of homosexuals during the 1950s. Also, by having Harry commit a horrendous act on a child, Selby conveys the archaic mentality that homosexuals are …show more content…
He states they create a ‘daisy chain’ in order to rape her; through this disturbing imagery we understand they rape her systematically and repetitively. After Tralala becomes unresponsive, Selby states: ‘the kids who were watching and waiting to take their turn took out their disappointment on Tralala’ (85). Here we see not only the men taking out their frustrations but children as well, and as with Harry, her section ends on an incomplete sentence, proving that cycles of violence and frustrations caused by impotence are being taught and manifested in the world of Sunset Park. Not only this, but Selby does not use any punctuation in this chapter, which can also be seen as a metaphor for the unrelenting rape that she endures and that her death will only satisfy the community for a short period of time, and it is inevitable that another victim will be
In LETB, Harry’s crucifixion and the brutal rape of Tralala, are perhaps the most harrowing examples of scapegoating. Selby himself seems to scapegoat Harry, as a representation of the alienation and repression of homosexuals during the 1950s. Also, by having Harry commit a horrendous act on a child, Selby conveys the archaic mentality that homosexuals are …show more content…
He states they create a ‘daisy chain’ in order to rape her; through this disturbing imagery we understand they rape her systematically and repetitively. After Tralala becomes unresponsive, Selby states: ‘the kids who were watching and waiting to take their turn took out their disappointment on Tralala’ (85). Here we see not only the men taking out their frustrations but children as well, and as with Harry, her section ends on an incomplete sentence, proving that cycles of violence and frustrations caused by impotence are being taught and manifested in the world of Sunset Park. Not only this, but Selby does not use any punctuation in this chapter, which can also be seen as a metaphor for the unrelenting rape that she endures and that her death will only satisfy the community for a short period of time, and it is inevitable that another victim will be