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| Plot Summary of Requiem for a Dream |
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"Four very likeable people use drugs in search of a dream - all with the intention of making the drug use very temporary.All end up as addicts, and the book chronicles their downward spiral in a compelling and sympathetic manner. You really hate to see them crumble. A great book!"
Kathy Parsons, Resident Scholar
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"The story of 4 characters who dream of a better life but are brought down by drug addiction. Sarah takes diet pills so she can appear on a TV show, while her son Harry, girlfriend Marian, and friend Tyrone try selling heroin as a way to make money. Family and relationships fall apart as the drug becomes the most important thing."
Beth Hoffman, Resident Scholar
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"The story's main characters are mother and son, Sara (Burstyn) and Harry Goldfarb (Leto), Harry's girlfriend Marion Silver (Connelly), and Harry's friend Tyrone C. Love (Wayans). The novel and the movie both deliberately move through three sections: summer, fall and winter.
The story begins in summer. Sara is a middle-aged woman who lives alone in an apartment in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, spending all day in front of her television watching a repetitive and insipid weight-loss infomercial, wherein the host, played by Christopher McDonald, repeatedly describes three things he did to change his life. Two of them are revealed (Abstinence from red meat & refined sugar), with the third only being heard by Mrs. Goldfarb as she slips into a drug induced stupor (in a screenshot from the movie one can see that the third "life changer" is "No Orgasm"). The sound therefore is represented as digitally distorted speech, unintelligible to the audience. Along with this, she spends her time indulging in chocolates and other unhealthy foods, as well as pining for her late husband, Seymour. Harry only shows up at her apartment periodically to steal her television in order to finance his heroin habit.
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, Resident Scholar
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"There are four main characters: Sara Goldfarb, Harry Goldfarb, Marion, and Tyrone C Love. Sara's dream is to be on television. In order to be on television, she needs to lose weight and becomes addicted to diet pills. Her son, Harry, gets addicted to heroin. At first Harry, Marion, and Tyrone want to sell heroin to make a fortune and to follow through with their dreams. Instead, they get addicted to heroin . All they can think about is heroin while all Sara can think about is losing weight. This obsession destroys them, but they refuse to see this.
The book is written in an unusual way. All grammatical rules are thrown out and a unique style emerges. There are no quotation marks or apostrophes during dialouges between characters. "
Echo., Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Requiem for a Dream |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- depressed
Time/era of story
- 1980's-1999
Family, loving relations
Yes
Special relationship with
- mother
Internal struggle/realization?
Yes
Struggle over
- vague finding self/purpose in life (i.e. no plot to book)
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Battle with a psychiatrist
Yes
Druggie/Wino problems?
- drugs
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- unemployed
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental
Yes
Eccentric:
- emotionally unstable
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Jewish
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- druggie/wino disease
Main Adversary
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- throughout most of the book.
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 2 ()
United States
Yes
The US:
- Southeast
- Northeast
City?
Yes
City:
- New York
- dangerous
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
- descript of kissing
- touching of anatomy
Lot of foul language?
Yes
Unusual Style:
- No single main character?
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Click here for more information about this book
Hubert Selby, Jr. Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Echo.
SCHOLARS:
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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