Genre
Non-fiction book
Setting and Context
Written in the context of the opiate epidemic
Narrator and Point of View
Third-point of view
Tone and Mood
Horrific, gloomy, and disheartening
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist is the personified Purdue Pharma.
Major Conflict
There is a conflict between the government and the pharmaceutical companies, colluding with hospitals to overprescribe their drugs to patients.
Climax
The climax comes when the plan of Purdue Pharma is revealed after releasing the OxyContin drug to the market. The company intended to make a bank because it had a well-designed plan to dupe hospitals to overprescribe the drug.
Foreshadowing
The unregulated production of the drug foreshadows the influx of heroin addiction in Xalisco County by anonymous citizens.
Understatement
The United States government understated the influence of the drug cartels.
Allusions
The influence of drug addiction and abuse is understated.
Imagery
The imagery of money and exploitation is evident throughout the text. The imagery helps readers see the ill business practices of the pharmaceutical companies in the USA whose primary intention is to influence over-prescription of their medicines to make supernormal profits from their sales.
Paradox
The paradox of duo corruption is evident because drug cartels and Purdue Pharma are primarily motivated to exploit people to make supernormal profits.
Parallelism
There is parallelism between the intentions of drug cartels and the ill intentional of pharmaceutical companies.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
Pharmaceutical companies are personified as corrupt.
