Intention

Explaining and motivating the themes used in his fiction

David Joy wrote “Digging in the Trash” a few weeks after his book, The Weight Of This World, was published. Like many of his works, the book included characters which were helpless or engaged in violence and drug use.

The essay was written by Joy partly to explain and defend his choice of characters, as suggested by the following references: “I get asked all the time why my characters aren’t hopeful.” (ll. 280-281); “Just as I’m asked about hope and drug use, I’m always asked about violence – why is there so much violence in my work – and for me violence is tied directly to this idea of being heard.” (206-210).

Moreover, Joy uses the essay to give some of his critical reviewers a direct response: “This is what got me, though. He wrote that I should ‘leave the peeling trailers, come down out of the hollers, and try writing about people….” (ll. 257-260); “But what he misses is this. These  are people who just like everyone else experience happiness, sadness, fear…” (ll. 264-266).

Joy uses his essay to explain why he doesn’t follow a conventio...