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4. Benway
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Naked Lunch, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Drug Addiction
The Art of Writing
Politics, Power, and Control
American Society
The Medical-Industrial Complex
Summary
Analysis
A communist poet named Joselito begins to cough. An elitist and racist German doctor, whom the narrator does not name, diagnoses Joselito with “catarro de los pulmones” (inflamed lungs), which is likely tuberculosis. Joselito’s friend Carl speaks with the doctor, who explains to Carl that the lesions are in both lungs. The doctor nevertheless reassures Carl that “these people” usually heal quickly. The doctor then says he will transfer Joselito to a sanitarium, but Carl wonders if Joselito can receive “chemical therapy” instead. The doctor tells Carl he is not sure and gives Carl the address to the sanitarium. Carl pays the doctor.
Though the passage does not name it explicitly, the reader can infer that the character Joselito has contracted tuberculosis, and this likely also means he is a drug user, as drug use is a well-known risk factor for the disease. The way the doctor refers to Joselito in terms of “these people” at first seems racist, but he may also be referring to drug users or addicts, enacting a process of othering and marginalizing them. Joselito’s friend Carl is taking charge of his care, but his concern with “chemical therapy,” which refers to the use of medications, suggests Carl is also a drug user and may also be looking to score drugs himself. In this way, it also alludes to the pharmaceutical industry’s complicity with addiction.
Active
Themes
After being transferred to a first sanitarium for treatment, Joselito tells Carl in his sanitarium bedroom that he will soon be transferred to a different sanitarium. He asks Carl to come and visit. The scene then abruptly shifts to Carl discussing Joselito’s illness with a different, unnamed Indian doctor. Carl once again brings up chemical treatment. He wants to know if it is more effective than sanitarium treatment, but the Indian doctor simply looks at him with a blank face.
Carl, once again speaking “on behalf” of his friend Joselito, inquires after chemical therapy, this time with a new doctor at a new sanitarium. The text’s tone suggest that Carl is likely looking to use some of the drugs himself, once again reinforcing the connection between the pharmaceutical industry and drug addiction. It also illustrates how all-encompassing drug addiction is, as even when his friend is being treated for a serious illness, Carl is nonetheless focused on scoring drugs.
Active
Themes
What seems to be a little later, at the entrance to the new sanitarium, Carl hallucinates a scene in which he experiences a heroin overdose. He can see himself lying on the floor of a lunchroom while his wife tries to shake him awake and offers him coffee. When the hallucination ends and Carl reenters the present, he considers bribing the sanitarium’s commandant for chemical therapy. Carl pulls a half-note out of his pocket, and at that moment, he experiences another intense hallucination. This one involves a series of disconnected and horrifying scenes featuring bathrooms, graves, and a “vast plain” with syringe caps and empty tubes of sexual lubricant. Outside of the sanitarium, Carl is “nodding idiotically and drooling” and muttering to himself incoherently. From the street, some young boys cry out to Carl, referring to him as Joselito.
Active
Themes
