Dawn is the infant child of Lesley who dies of what seems to be sudden infant death syndrome while several characters (including Dawn’s likely father, Sick Boy) are high on heroin. The incident weighs heavily on all of the characters, causing several of them to make pledges to give up their addictions, although many of these lofty plans fall through. Dawn’s death represents the death of innocence, partly due to addiction, but perhaps even more due to random chance, providing evidence for the bleak and pessimistic worldview that many characters like Rent Boy share in the story.
Dawn Quotes in Trainspotting
The Trainspotting quotes below are all either spoken by Dawn or refer to Dawn . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Kicking
Quotes
Ah never wanted anything mair in ma life than fir her tae stoap screamin.— The bairn’s away . . . the bairn’s away. . . Dawn. . . oh my god. . . oh fuckin god, wis aboot aw ah could pick ootay the horrible sound. She collapses oantae the threadbare couch.
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Dawn Character Timeline in Trainspotting
The timeline below shows where the character Dawn appears in Trainspotting. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Kicking
...Matty, when they hear a loud noise. Lesley comes into the room screaming about how Dawn is “away.” Everyone gets angry at her for shouting, but when Sick Boy goes out...
(full context)
...flush their supply down the toilet if they don’t have to. Matty suggests that since Dawn was Lesley’s kid, maybe it’s her responsibility to take care of everything. Spud disagrees and...
(full context)
...isn’t a bad parent and heroin didn’t have anything to do with it. He says Dawn could easily have died from “cot death” (sudden infant death syndrome). Everyone agrees, so Rent...
(full context)
Kicking Again
Rent Boy realizes too late that “dawn” will remind everyone of “Dawn,” Lesley’s child who died. Sick Boy was likely the father. Sick Boy doesn’t acknowledge the...
(full context)
Blowing It
...time. He starts hallucinating and having intrusive thoughts about eating his own tongue. He sees Dawn crying on the ceiling. When Rent Boy finally becomes lucid again, he doesn’t know how...
(full context)
...Lesley. Johnny thinks Lesley should be happy to not have any responsibilities anymore, now that Dawn is dead. Rent Boy disagrees.
(full context)
Exile
...a baby that died of cot death, which makes them think of Lesley’s dead baby, Dawn.
(full context)
