In William Burroughs’ classic work, “Junky”, Burroughs writes “As this relaxing wave spread through my tissue, I experienced a strong feeling of fear. I had the feeling that some horrible image was just beyond the field of vision, moving, as I turned my head, so that I never quite saw it. … The physical impact of the fear of death; the shutting off of breath; the stopping of blood.” This paper examines this particular citation in respect to its purpose as a small unifying vision of the main theme of the novel and as to whether the visions perceived by Burroughs are symbols of truth or simply “junk”. This paper takes the position that the use of heroin can be equated to life itself.