Point of View

Trainspotting takes the form of a series of short stories with a recurring cast of characters. As such, the plot is disseminated through a rotating narration, involving first person narration from a series of different characters and a third person omniscient narrator that roves about group scenes.

The first person narration in Trainspotting has many different narrators. Mark Renton is the most common narrator, but there are others: Spud, Sick Boy, Begbie, Kelly, Davie, Tommy, Rav, etc. By and large, these narrators become differentiated by their style of speech. Renton, Spud and Begbie, for example, narrate in a heavily accented Scots dialect that seems almost like another language at first blush. Kelly and Sick boy, on the other hand, speak in something more akin to standard English, though not entirely without dialect.

The third person narration, on the other hand, is distinguished by being entirely in...