Family
The relationships between the members of Ari’s family are highly volatile. For example, even though Peter, Janet and Ari insult each other frequently, they support each other: “You’re all studying if she asks,” says Ari to protect the couple from the wrath of his mother. Moreover, even though Ari annoys Janet, he manages to get “in her good books because [he] got her out of going to lunch.“
When Ari visits his parents, his mother--just like on the phone before--“starts a rave in Greek, calls [him] a fucking animal, a pig in the mud she stresses, throws a tea-towel at [him] and starts crying.” His only response is that he is hungry, so the mother “slaps [him] lightly on [his] arse and, grumbling a little more, starts preparing lunch,“ which shows that she supports him even though she is disappointed in his life choices. After bringing him a wholesome meal, she tells Ari that she used to fight with her grandfather all the time but always respected him. Ari, on the other hand, admits that he does not respect his parents even though he loves them because they keep complaining about their life, yet do not try to change it. Ari concludes that all this drama is just an exaggeration, being cultivated because “it adds a sheen of tragedy to a boring life.”
Later, when Ari’s sister notices that he is on drugs, she does not tell her parents: “She looks right into my eyes and grins. Brother flying high, is he?” Eventually, Ari summarizes his experience thus: “Living in my family it was a series of small explosions; consistent, passionate, pathetic. Cruel words, crude threats.“
Music
Apart from drugs and sex, music offers Ari a way to escape reality and boredom: “The Walkman is my favourite toy. It creates a soundtrack for me and lets me slip into walking through a movie.” In fact, Ari describes music as a form of drug which alters his state of mind: “In the three minutes it takes the song to play I’m caught in a magic world of harmony and joy, a truly ecstatic joy, where the aching longing to be somewhere else, out of this city, out of this country, out of this body and out of this life, is kept at bay. I relive those three minutes again and again till I’m calm enough to walk back into life again.“
Later at night, when he is on speed, his senses are heightened and the effects of music intensified. Several times he reaches a trance-like state: “On the dance floor I move between bodies twirling and swaying to the pain of the music. But in our motions we transform the pain into joy. The speed lifts me above the other bodies and as the chorus is repeated for the last time I fall on one knee, jump up immediately, fall on the other, twirl, fall back on my knees and jump back into a standing position.” Later in the novel, Ari describes homosexual acts as metaphorical dances, and the movement on the dancefloor as a type of foreplay: “Drugs mould the club, drugs initiate the dancing, the search for sex.”
Hatred
Throughout the novel, Ari outlines a world of hatred, where even the immigrants turn against each other: “The Serb hates the Croat who hates the Bosnian who hates the Albanian who hates the Greek who hates the Turk who hates the Armenian who hates the Kurd who hates the Palestinian who hates the Jew who hates everybody. Everyone hates everyone else, a web of hatred connects the planet.” He even feels so much hatred in himself that he does not want others to enjoy themselves: “Cousins I have not seen in years, aunts who I do not remember, we all sit together and drink toasts to the blushing bride and the handsome groom on the dais and I always feel like choking on my drink, smashing my fist into the wedding cake, sucking off the best man in the toilets, getting drunk, getting ripped, getting out of it, abusing my uncles, doing anything to stop the charade.“
Drugs
When physical and social boundaries separate people, Ari takes drugs to overcome these boundaries. Moreover, they offer a way out of boredom, as they keep him “quiet. And relatively content.” In the 24 hours that the reader follows him, Ari takes a variety of drugs from speed to alcohol, sometimes not even knowing what is offered to him. He does not care about his health; instead, “on speed I dance with my body and my soul. In this white powder they've distilled the essence of the Greek word kefi. Kefi is the urge to dance, to be with good friends, to open your arms to life. Straight, I can approximate kefi, but I am always conscious of fighting off boredom. Speed doesn't let you get bored.” After taking speed, Ari also maps out Melbourne in terms of male homosexuality. At the same time, he emphasizes that drugs allow him to get the most out of the present life before it is gone: “The Polytechnic is history. Vietnam is history. Auschwitz is history. Hippies are history. Punks are history. God is history. Hollywood is history. The Soviet Union is history. My parents are history. My friend Joe is becoming history. I will become history. This fucking shithole planet will become history. Take more drugs.“
