INTERPRETATIVE STUDY COMPARISON ESSAY
             I have read the two books "Back On Track - Diary Of a Street Kid" by Margret Clarke, "Junk" by Melvin Burgess and watched the movie "Trainspotting" directed by Danny Boyle and based on a novel by Irvine Welsh. All of these texts involve the issue of drugs and how the affect young people. I chose this general topic as it is so relevant in today's life, yet I feel not discussed enough. I have found that this issue discussed was not the only similarity linking the three texts, there are many underlying points that are comparable between them that both interested, bored and shocked me.
             "Back On Track" is the diary of 'Simone Fawkner' following the struggles of her life as a street kid, and is set during the 1990's in different parts of Australia.
             "Junk" is the story of a few different young people and their lives filled with problems of drugs, homelessness and insecurity, and is set in Bristol in the mid 1980's.
             "Trainspotting" is a movie about a group of young male friends and the way they deal with their lives in a world of drugs and poverty, and is set in Scotland in the 1980's.
             There are two themes that I found very prominently outlined throughout all three books: low self-esteem and insecurity, and Loyalty and trust.
             The first is conveyed by all authors through characters using drugs, as all say that they take them for reasons like: getting away from life, to make them feel good, to lose inhibitions or to stop pain. These excuses are all a result of some form of low self-esteem. The following examples are some of the most obvious.
             At the beginning of "Back On Track" 'Simone' is very confident and happy about her life. When offered Drugs, she refuses feeling that she doesn't need them. "I don't touch powder or trips, I said. I've seen enough of that shit to last me a lifetime. Just a few bourbons, that's me." (pg. 32) When she is later raped her self-esteem drops, as she blames herse...