English 3444E Lecture 23: Lecture 23
16 Dec 2016
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He writes to warn people against opium use which is a form of repentance. Passage where he requests to borrow money is an example of inventing himself, must have his friends attest to his identity. His identity is dependent on the names he can draw and the people he can reference. Promises at the end that he is going to teach the reader how to get clean. At the end says that he is almost clean, but usually the person who is almost clean is not clean. The very act of confessing is indicative that you are still standing within your narrative. He is still within his experience because of his emotions - he is not just recollecting it in tranquility: the time scheme is not logical, jumps all over the place. Jumps between the moment he is narrating in the past and the present tense in which he is writing: when he is narrating the pains of opium.
