In Young Mungo, Stuart explores the conflict between the individual and their society. Every character in this novel is battling social norms or expectations in some way, and most fall victim to the oppression of Glasgow’s seemingly inexorable East End culture. In this novel, Stuart asks his reader the classic and still relevant question: Does society corrupt individuals, or do individuals corrupt society?

The East End is a microcosm of the complex history and prejudices of Glasgow, Scotland, and even the UK. Throughout most of its history, Scotland has suffered under an overreaching England; in 1980s Thatcher UK, Scottish individual identity is threatened by socio-economic strife, violence against self and others, and a lack of upward mobility. The East End of Glasgow is a particularly bleak locus of all of these issues. Stuart explores how people get stuck in East End, only to replicate cycles of violence that make it impossible for the community to change for the better. Neighbors spy on neighbors, street gangs replicate religious wars going back centuries, and residents enforce narrow and limited confines for gender expectations. Hamish’s story exemplifies this cycle of oppression. There was once a time when Hamish was interested in going to university to study engineering, which would have vastly improved his dignity, moral standing, and future.