Essay Questions

Why is this such a bad drug for Bob to become addicted to?

Substance D is a psychotropic drug which means that it creates a tendency to have hallucinations and it also makes the left and the right side of the brain start to work independently of each other. Coupled with this is an increased risk of paranoia and a belief that everyone is out to get you.

As a narcotics agent, Bob is undercover and is given tools to prevent even members of law enforcement outside his team finding out his true identity. This includes a special suit that prevents discovery, and a scanner that prevents them learning his information. Unfortunately, these are all things that buy into his ever-increasing feeling that he is being watched, or that his mind is being read. He is also unable to process what he is seeing on a television screen with what he already knows as his thought processes are all going horribly wrong. When he sees his fellow household members being interviewed on the video screen he does not recognize them or believe them to be real; the same happens when he sees a tape of himself being interviews.

What is ironic about his team members writing him off as an agent?

Bob's fellow narcotics agents see a shell of a man who is, to all intents and purposes, completely useless when it comes to finding out anything about the Substance D dealers, or about the players in the drugs trade. The write him off, generally leaving him to his own devices as a mentally broken man. There are several undercover agents pretending to be recovering addicts at New Path, just like him, but he no longer recognizes them as agents and thinks that they are his friends.

The big irony in this is that Bob is the one who eventually discovers both the source of the drugs and the source of the funding that New Path enjoys and receives. The pretty blue flowers planted and hidden in the cornfields are actually the source of the drug, and despite his addled state Bob recognizes this. He picks some of the flowers intending to give them to his "friends" on Thanksgiving. Unknowingly, he has found the information that they have been looking for, and by giving it to the undercover agents around him, he will be able to report back just like he did when he was an agent they believe to be useful.