Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Dreamland, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Pain Management and the Normalization of Narcotics
The Drug Business
Stigma, Shame, and the Opiate Epidemic
Community as a Remedy to Addiction
Summary
Analysis
The Schoonovers—Myles, Matt, and their parents Paul and Ellen—live in a middle-class neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. Myles did some partying in high school, but he ultimately knew when to settle down and focus on his schoolwork. In 2005, he left home to attend a college in Tennessee. Matt later joined Myles at college and Myles discovered that Matt was abusing prescription pills, which had become common in the region at this time. Myles tried to take care of his brother, but the pills affected Matt’s ability to function. Myles observed that a lot of kids his brother’s age “could not navigate life’s demands and consequences.”
Quinones emphasizes the Schoonovers’ middle-class status to show how the opiate epidemic affected a population not normally associated with the stigma of drug use. Myles’s observation that Matt and his friends “could not navigate life’s demands and consequences” is reflective of Quinones’s belief that America has become isolated and unable to deal with pain and discomfort.
Themes
Matt moved back home after a year of college, now a “functional addict.” He used prescription opiates heavily, including OxyContin, a prescription painkiller made by Purdue Pharma. Matt’s parents were concerned when they found out about the drugs, but the pills were prescribed by doctors, so they figured it couldn’t be that bad. Matt was able to detox from the opiates but he relapsed shortly after. By this point, he was unable to afford painkillers, so he switched to black tar heroin, introduced to Ohio by a Mexican distribution group based out of Nayarit. Matt told his parents about his heroin problem, and they quickly sent him to a treatment center.
Matt’s parents’ initial lack of concern reflects the lack of stigma attached to the medical industry. The Schoonovers weren’t too worried about Matt’s use of painkillers because they were prescribed by doctors, who are essentially legitimate drug-pushers. Had Matt started off using a drug like heroin, purchased from an illegitimate drug-pusher like a Xalisco Boy, it is likely that the Schoonovers would have been more immediately concerned. However, as this story shows, the effects and dangers of heroin and prescription opiates such as OxyContin are similar enough to be wary of both.
Themes
Matt returned home from rehab in May 2012. Only a day after his release, however, he overdosed and died at the age of 21. Ellen and Paul were shocked and confused. They couldn’t believe their son’s pill abuse had led to his death—after all, “doctors prescribed them,” so how could they wreak so much havoc on their family? Still, Matt’s story is hardly unique, as drug overdoses contribute to more fatalities than car accidents. In particular, most fatal drug overdoses are the result of opiates, part of an epidemic that is “happening quietly.”
Again, because “doctors prescribed [painkillers],” the Schoonovers hadn’t believed that Matt’s drug abuse would lead to heroin use and death. Despite the fact that drug overdoses are common and that most overdoses are caused by opiates, the epidemic “happen[ed] quietly” because middle-class parents were initially too ashamed of the stigma attached to drug use to come forward about family members’ drug abuse.
Themes
Through these deadly prescription pills, “heroin had entered the mainstream.” Most new addicts belonged to the American middle-class. They lived in clean communities and came from privileged backgrounds. In his research, Quinones meets many other parents like Paul and Ellen, who have lost children to heroin overdoses.
Heroin became a mainstream, middle-class drug because of the lack of stigma attached to prescription painkillers. More people were willing to start using painkillers because their trust in the medical industry provided them with a false sense of comfort. Once this new, unwitting class of users were addicted to opiates, heroin (which is cheaper and easier to access) was a natural next step.
Themes
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