Young people –

Represented as callous and misguided young people in ‘trainspotting’ are shown to demonstrate this in numerous scenes throughout the duration of the film. For an example of showing callousness, Spud and Renton steal belongings off the elderly all in attempts to feed their drug addictions. This is further backed up with Renton’s narration stating the further acts they did: “we stole drugs. We stole prescriptions or bought them, forged them, photocopied them”.

Another example of young peoples emotionless representation can be seen with Renton’s lack of empathy for his friend, Tommy, who’s girlfriend broke up with him over a missing sex tape, even though it was Renton who stole it.

Older people –

Shown to be docile and remote from the lives of the main characters, when they are in scenes they appear to be oblivious to the effect of drugs has on their children’s minds such as the scene above with Renton’s parents not noticing. Another example of older people being represented as docile and weak can be seen with the first day of Edinburgh festival scene were the gang beat up an old American tourist in the toilets.

Working class people –

The working class are represented as cons, picking up money from anyone or anything they can get, as quoted from the film “after all this was boom town where any fool could make cash and plenty did”. This comes from the part of the film where Renton moves to London (aka ‘boom town’) after getting off heroine. It is here were he also states “for the first time in my adult life, i was almost content” this implies that being apart of the working class frees him from the need drugs as work has supplemented that.

Scottish people –

Depicted as unhappy and incapable to change that, Scottish people are represented as a depressed people due to colonisation from the English. This is shown in the scene above where Mark states to tommy “Its shite being Scottish! We’re the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization. Some hate the English. I don’t. They’re just wankers. We, on the other hand, are colonized by wankers. Can’t even find a decent culture to be colonized by. We’re ruled by effete assholes. It’s a shite state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won’t make any fucking difference!” – this overall reflects the characters ideas behind their constant states of misery and turn to heroin to escape it all.

Addicts –

With the films main idea to depict Scotlands drug culture in the 1980’s, it accurately shows this by not glamourising the usage of drugs but instead showing the horrible effects it has on people, this is beastly shown with the character tommy’s story arch. After losing his girlfriend he turns to drugs, it is here where he he becomes severely addicted and ends up eventually passing away due to excessive drug use.

Men –

Depicted as violent and sex-crazed, throughout the film they are also represented as womanisers and bullies, by picking fights and making advances on girls at clubs. Mostly representing violence, the character ‘Begbie’ is a good example as he threatens his peers and starts altercations in almost every seen.

Women –

Represented almost as play toys for the men in the film, women are shown in a very stereotypical fashion by being only shown with a man in a relationship. The only counter-type about gender would be with Diane who holds power over Renton as she is capable to report him into the police for sleeping with her since she is only 15.