Saining First Introduced Heroin To Hong example essay topic

Opiate of Love Mian Mian's novel Candy, takes a deeper look into China's economic upbringing to the modern world. The book is entirely narrated by Hong - a fictitious character who levels with the exploding populous of drugs, prostitution, and new-age music through her early adult years. She meets a young musician named Saining who both fall hopelessly in love for each other. The binding relationship of Saining and Hong did not go un-aided, as the social repercussion of heroin and alcohol soon found its way into controlling their lives and eventually their future as a couple. When Saining found an entry to escape the world with heroin, he would inevitably leave Hong out. Consequently, if either of them was in absence of any substance, they fell out of each other's "wavelength".

In turn, both would sequentially drop in and out of each other's wavelength that proved fatal to their relationship. To maintain order of this relationship, indulgence of alcohol and heroin was their only answer, and eventually a self-botched religion. When beginning to understand this dilemma of love vs. drug addiction and withdrawal, the answer lies back to when Saining first introduced heroin to Hong. When she tries heroin for herself, she believed that the drug was horrible and decided she disliked it. The first instance of this unbalanced wavelength level is noted when Saining decides to kick his heroin habit. "He took to spending long hours outside the balcony, sitting motionless and looking out.

This solitude was more than I could stand, and I joined him and we watched it all together, the chaotic street below. The sunlight was always so full of poison. A drug that was a stranger to me had put up a wall between me and my closest friend. I couldn't read his expressions, and I had lost the power to attract him... I was determined to get my lover back". (Mian, 73) With this, Hong slowly realizes they are losing trust in each other... and without trust, a key element; one cannot have a decent relationship.

After Saining went into rehab, Hong soon found draining herself away with liquor rather heavily... and still drinking when Saining was released from rehab. There, the balance of the wavelength becomes uneven again between the two and Saining starts using heroin again. "Sometimes you really scare me, he said. How can I make love with someone I am afraid of? I share a bed with you, but sometimes I'll be watching your face while you sleep, and suddenly I'll get this feeling like I don't know you at all". (Mian, 78) Thus, the infamous cycle continues - and explicitly noted by Hong "But the most confusing and hurtful thing of all was that he no longer needed to connect with me.

He used heroin. I didn't. We weren't on the same wavelength anymore; we couldn't connect". (Mian, 79) This simple notion when either Hong or Saining was done, the other one would have to be matched to their mentality and state of mind. This of course worked for both ways - up and down. After splitting up and getting back together again, they made the decision to free themselves from drugs and alcohol.

They both stopped their habitual indulgences and found themselves in "low spirits" - showing all the signs of withdrawal. Over the course of treatment, Saining finds himself addicted to medication and ultimately going back to heroin. This in turn leads Saining to leave Hong on her own. It is important to understand this treacherous and repeating cycle. The term "Religion is the opiate of the people" is indirectly related to Saining and Hong's situation. Specifically, both of them constantly find the need for balance in their relationship by introducing alcohol and drugs.

If Karl Marx was correct in saying that an opiate (in societal applications) is something that desensitizes, blinds, dulls and over all gives a sense of well being, then this is the drugs and alcohol they use to convey themselves to that state. In terms of religion, it's a matter of formulating what they understand of God, man and the universe... but in Saining and Hong's situation, it would be their connection to love. (Religion, Livingston) Marx listed five different states of religion upholding to religion as an opiate. The one that seemed extremely familiar to Hong and Saining's situation was the fourth possibility whereas someone yields their authority of faith to someone else's idea of God. Whoever or whatever controls someone's religion, controls his / her will, or controls their thought; and controls their actions. This possession of another human being makes him / her a complete slave.

Although, this person might feel / believe they are free and feel a sense of high living. What also relates to Hong and Saining is how they are a slave to each other with their addictions. That was the fatal flaw in their relationship. Without ever giving a thought of the grim, meat hook realities that lay in wait for the drug they took seriously.

Since Hong felt alcohol was not as worthy to connecting with Saining, she left the only choice of heroin on her menu to help "connect". After becoming severely addicted, she finally found balance and freedom with herself and now found herself on Saining's wavelength. This would be the system that they would both have to live by - their religion. It controls them and keeps order to their lives in a constant pessimistic / joyful manner.

Of course, when both of them are not using drugs, they come back to being on the same level and can connect like normal human beings. What Hong took down with her was the central illusions of a whole religion that Saining helped create. All those pathetic, eager attempts to reach peace and understanding on the same wavelength with each other would eventually create their ultimate fall. Someone once said you can get much higher without drugs than with them - Hong and Saining too, for that matter, would have to adopt this realization as they moved on in their lives. Even though they do eventually split up, the use for outside drugs for their religion would no longer be needed. But their loss, and failures, outside of a generation of permanent cripples and failed seekers, who never understood the essential old mystic fallacy of the heroin culture... the desperate assumption that somebody, or at least some force is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.

And that, I think is the handle, that you can turn your back on a person, but never, turn your back on a drug.

Bibliography

Mian, Mian. CANDY. NewYork: Back Bay Books, 2003.
Religion: an 'Opiate of the People. 7 Nov. 2004.
c) 2003 Dr.