Human ken dolls
People always worship beauty. To prove this fact, one may have a look at the money which the beauty industry earns yearly. From Clay’s words, we know that he has “blond hair cut too short, a deep tan, sunglasses still on”, he is definitely attractive and he is perfectly aware of it. He and his friends look almost the same. Sometimes the resemblance is so striking that a reader may wonder whether they are all related or not. Once Clay attends a party and sees a room full of the young boys who look absolutely the same “thin, tan bodies, short blond hair, blank look in the blue eyes, same empty toneless voices” and suddenly he wonders whether he also looks like this. The author pays a lot of attention to appearances of his characters and always describes clothes they wear. Fashion magazines which are mentioned in the novel prove that the characters are interested or pretend to be interested in fashion.
Influence of cocaine
The author brings the topic of cocaine addiction into the spotlight. “A line of coke” is something that unites all characters in the story. Cocaine influences them in the same way, because they feel completely “fucked up” when its effect fades. Coming off the coke they suffer “sneezing blood or crying”. To register quality differences, the author uses such adjectives as lousy, good or great to describe it. Soon a reader finds out that it also could be “cut with too much Novocain”.
Endless parties
Clay and his friends party all the time, and the author pays so much attention to them and their escapades. A reader gets a chance to see a Christmas party and a New Year’s Eve party at Blair’s, Dead’s, Daniel’s, Kim’s, Eddie’s, and other places. They are almost identical, because of the same participants, the same music and the same entertainments. Sometimes these parties “get out of hand” and something bad happens, such as a rape or a murder.
