Naked Lunch

The young man is a minor character who struggles with drug addiction. He is dealing with “coke bugs” (tactile hallucinations linked to cocaine usage) and is constantly scratching his skin. The young man walks into the Meet Café one afternoon when the Sailor is there. The Sailor, a disreputable character, immediately targets the young man and offers him drugs to cure his ailment in exchange for the young man’s “Time,” which is code for sex. The young man doesn’t understand this, but he follows the Sailor to his apartment anyway and accepts his offer. While they are there, the Sailor pulls out a shiny box that resembles fireworks packaging and reminds the young man of the time he was hospitalized after a Fourth of July accident and subsequently given his first taste of drugs. This memory illustrates the role the medical and pharmaceutical industries play in drug addiction, a phenomenon that Burroughs is largely critical of. The Sailor then reaches into the young man’s pants and fondles him, causing the young man to dissociate for some time. When he reenters his body, the Sailor gives the young man his first shot of pure heroin and warns him that there is now no going back for—the young man will now be addicted for life.