Drug abuse is the central issue in three works--the film Less Than Zero, and in the books Prozac Nation and In Search of Respect. Each presents individuals or groups of individuals who are alienated from their time and place in society. Drug use is the way these individuals deal with their alienation, or rather, avoid having to deal with it and instead escape into another mental realm. This "escape" is not to a better existence, and indeed, all three works suggest that the drug existence is a hellish one. The film depicts drug use among the wealthier class, featuring a group of young people in Beverly Hills. Elizabeth Wurtzel in Prozac Nation is also a young person, but from a different social class and with a different family background leaving her effectively on her own at too young an age. The minorities in the barrio in In Search of Respect turn to drugs for a different reason--they are caught in an eternal present, with no history to speak of, and no future they can see. Young people are faced with a number of difficult decisions at a time when they are only forming their identity and discovering ways of presenting their self to the outside world. These three works point to some of the forces at work and the problems encountered in this effort, and the way the young people in the three works respond suggests similar themes in their lives.
One thing that seems evident about the young people in all three of these works is that they have their own non-adult world to which they withdraw and within which they try to define themselves. The young people in Beverly Hills have been raised with a certain sense of entitlement, and they expect life to continue to give them the same level of lifestyle and the same level of choice. However, they have not learned the responsibility that goes with their place in life, and Julian in particular is an example of the pleasure-seeker who has always done what he wants and who is now faci...