'Trainspotting' by Danny Boyle: Character Analysis

Mark is yet another young adult in a developed country. A young adult, who is expected to take responsibility for himself, reach society's expectations, fulfill his needs, and satisfy the needs and expectations of others around him as well (family and friends). This is strain – a theory that suggests that an individual's behaviours are a result of the desire to live an “American dream”, and when there is a mismatch in the culturally idealized goals - like living in a big house, having a good job – and the opportunities to achieve them, many resorts to engaging in illegitimate ways to either achieve those or find an escape from the pressure. And so, in my opinion, Mark may also have been a victim to these expectations that made him resort to sell and consume drugs with his friends. As the movie prolongs, and as Mark’s character develops, we learn that Mark indeed does have dreams to belong well in society (when he finds rehabilitation), and going back, that is how it initially started… but unfortunately, found the wrong group in the process, thus suggesting another theory to define his behaviour – Social learning. Most of the time that Mark spent, was with his so-called friends, with whom he did drugs and engaged in illegal activities like stealing. Mark may either have wanted to belong well in the group so had started the deed, or he may have found the group as an outlet to release the social pressure or a mix of that threw him into his dismay, A useless junkie.

After a near-death experience, we see that Mark starts to recover from his addiction, gets a job that starts paying well and is almost about to restart his life, the right way, just before the people he engaged with coming back into his life, shattering his progress all over again. They lure him into selling drugs again but this time for a large sum (the big deal). This is where differential association is displayed. With 2000 pounds in his bank account and the deal at hand, Mark rationalized his next step by saying “ill try it one last time, get the cash and continue from where I started, nothing wrong in that”. At the end of the movie, after the greed that took over him and after stealing all the money from his friends, we hear Mark say “ I am a bad person, but that’s going to change, this is the last thing I’ve done, now I’m cleaning up and I’m moving on, going straight and choosing life, I’m going to be just like you – good job, good family, a fucking big television, a washing machine….” This final dialogue, in my opinion, holds the most value as it summarizes everything that Mark did, and why he did it, weighting the theories I mentioned above. “I’m a bad person” he said to claim he did his friends wrong, but we know that his friends were the reason why he got into drugs and illegal activities, thus realizing his friends were the first reason (social learning) and when he says, “this is the last thing I’ve done, I’m clean now..” he is rationalizing his previous behaviours thus catering to the differential association theory. And finally, when he said “I’m going to be just like you” he adds value to the strain theory; he is used innovation to conform to society, as he has found an innovative institutional means, sold illegal drugs and stole from his friends, to fulfill his societal and cultural goals. To conclude, in my opinion, Mark's behaviour cannot only be justified using one theory but as an amalgamation of all these to correctly analyze the motivations behind them.