Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr. In Selby's 1978 novel Requiem for a Dream each character succumbs to self-gratification, which ultimately and inevitably leads to self-gratification destruction. The four main characters, Harry Goldfarb, Sara Goldfarb, Marion, and Tyrone C. Love, each suffer from individual addictions, whether it be to their dreams, to illegal/legal narcotics, or even to television. “Eventually not only their bodies and minds, but their very souls are destroyed by their addictions” (Giles 104). Harry, a middle-class drug addict who constantly undermines his mother Sara Goldfarb's trust and estates, is in what appears to be a dreamlike, drug-induced romance with Marion. The novel begins with Harry taking his mother's television, this being a monthly routine, to pawn it in exchange for drug money. Harry, Marion, and Tyrone C. Love share one of the same dreams as Tyrone in the novel: "We could double our money. Easy... and in no time we'd get a pound of pure and joke, sit down and count the bread." (9). Their ambitions are simple: get a "pound of pure", a significant amount of heroin, and sell it, save the money without wasting it on their own needs, and eventually succeed in the business. Each character has a different plan for their money. Harry and Sara start a small coffee shop and Tyrone establishes himself in the "business". The "pound of pure" later in the story becomes a metaphor for their dream, or a general concept of their ideal happiness. All four characters, including Sara, seek to achieve a "pure" degree of happiness. And everyone in their own way will do everything to get it. Sara's story is by far the most captivating, not about... middle of paper... thinking about morale or others. Thinking about their desires first, most commonly their drug addiction. And ultimately this behavior led to the destruction of each other and themselves. Bibliography Brunet, Thierry. Lightning on the retina. SPIKE magazine October 21, 2003Bryfonski, Dedria and Phyllis Carmel Mendelson. Contemporary literary criticism. Volume 8. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978. 474-7Giles, James R. Understanding Hubert Selby, Jr. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. 93-113Selby, Hubert Jr. Last Exit To Brooklyn. New York: Grove Weiderfeld, 1964. Selby, Hubert Jr. Requiem for a Dream. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1978.Selby, Hubert Jr. Why I Keep Writing. Los Angeles Weekly. 1999. October 27 2003