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Katelyn Smith

Professor Justice

ENG.112.V01

26 Apr. 2019

Distorted Realities:

Cravings, Perceptions, and Obsession

Cravings, perceptions, obsession, and distorted realities. As humans it is completely

normal to crave and/or obsess over something, in fact it is unusual for a human to have no

cravings at all. By knowing this natural human condition we learn how differently people tend to

view things based solely upon their own desires. This initially makes communication and

assumptions very hard because everyone has different perceptions to meet their longing cravings.

Literature helps us to understand the different human perceptions better through the eyes of

different characters. In doing so, literature shows us that since humans are naturally crave-driven

they often tend to live in distorted and unrealistic realities based on obsession, the past, desires,

and insatiable cravings.

Obsession is horse blinders, permitting us to stare at one thing, and only that thing.

Obsession is also a strong storm washing away anything that distracts a person from their

specific fixations. In “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, Joyce Oates illustrates

distorted realities through obsession. Connie the 15 year old main character is being stalked by a

random man named Arnold Friend who knows everything about her. Arnold friend knows so

much about her that when Connie threatened her father coming home he began explaining that

they wouldn't be home for a while, followed by very descriptive visuals on what Connie’s family
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was doing at that very second. At first the stranger was kind and funny, however, when Connie

began to deny him he began to go crazy and became more aggressive. Arnold had obviously

expected Connie to just listen and go with him because he was convinced that he was charming

and that Connie had already fallen in love with him although she didn’t even know him.

Arnold’s obsession had gotten so bad that he even believed that she washed her hair that morning

just for him when in reality she didn’t even expect him to show up. At one point he got so angry

with Connie for not coming with him that he said “I'm the boy for you, and like I said, you come

out here nice like a lady and give me your hand, and nobody else gets hurt, I mean, your nice old

bald-headed daddy and your mummy and your sister in her high heels. Because listen: why bring

them in this?" (896). Right after threatening her family he told Connie all about how her

neighbor was dead and repeatedly said she was gone and wasn’t coming back, thus only scaring

Connie more in order to feed his obsession. Like most people with an obsession Arnold Friend

had decided that he was going to get what he wanted no matter what he had to say to get it. Later

in the story, he states “You don’t want them to get hurt, Now get up honey, get up all by

yourself.” (898). Much like Arnold, people with obsessions try to justify their actions in some

way, such as excuses as to why they are doing the right thing. This shows numerous times

throughout the story such as when Arnold states, “They don’t know one thing about you and

never did, and honey... not a one of them would have done this for you.” (898). Oates creates this

character for a variety of reasons. One being that it shows us that ​like all addictions, obsession is

intoxicating. It fills an empty void, and makes people feel whole again. But also like all

addictions, obsessions turn toxic and negative, for not only ourselves but everyone involved or in

the way of the obsession. In the end, we see the character Arnold’s obsession for Connie has
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spiraled so out of control, that he believed he was doing the right thing. People with obsessions

as intense as Arnold’s feel as if they are not doing anything wrong and they try to justify it to not

only their obsessions but their own brains and hearts that these impermissible things are okay.

However realistically we know that that is completely unacceptable and weird. Obsessions can

be dangerous and can lead to a very distorted reality, where like Arnold we see and imagine

things that help to feed and get us closer to our obsessions.

Distorted realities also tend to come from a person's past, this appears numerous times in

literature, One example being “Once More to the Lake” by E. B. White. This short story is

supposed to be happy, and about reminiscing old memories from father to son through the

generations. But this specific story took a dark twist. The story starts off happy when the father

speaks about all of his old memories with his father. He explains that he loved the lake and that

he missed the times when “[His] father rolled over in a canoe with all his clothes on; but outside

of that the vacation was a success and from then on none of us ever thought there was any place

in the world like that lake in Maine” (1305). Then he starts thinking more in depth and starts

noticing little details about the lake that has changed. For example, he notices how the three path

road had turned to only two paths over the years, and even the new bugs swarming around the

lake eventually it all starts driving him crazy, to the point where he even begins to see himself as

his father and sees his son as him. This goes on and on until it drives him crazy, as he was

watching his son he exclaims that “[He] watched him, his hard little body, skinny and bare, saw

him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment. As he buckled

the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.” (1309). His past drove him so crazy

that it brought him to think his young son dying, just as his memories at the lake did. E.B. White
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creates this character to show us that the past can drive someone crazy and cause them to think

about things until it eventually controls everything in our lives. White shows us that if we don’t

fill our natural cravings. Then our craving will blind us from reality until it is filled making us

see and think anything until either the craving is fulfilled, or we are driven completely insane.

A desire is something we as humans know all too well hear on a daily basis whether we

are talking about pets and other humans or objects and activities. Humans are taught throughout

their lifetime to find the perfect relationship and to live in this unconditionally loving perfect

relationship. In Michael Cunningham's “Little Man” Cunningham cleverly demonstrates how

strong desires can make people lose sight of reality. In the beginning Cunningham says,

“Imagine reaching the point at which you want a child more than you remember ever wanting

anything else.”(para. 4). In doing this Cunningham is not only foreshadowing, but he is also

trying to get people to relate and understand that we have these same desires initially pulling us

into an unrealistic reality. Rumpelstiltskin is known as an ugly, short man, who in the original

story is not supposed to find love. However, we as the readers know how desperate he is for

love, and a child of his own when Cunningham states “it’s because you want the child, you need

the child, and yet you can’t bear to be yourself at this moment; you can’t stand there any longer

enjoying your mastery over her.” (para 86). After helping the poor miller’s daughter who was

being forced to turn straw into gold in order to live, Rumpelstiltskin states “Promise me your

firstborn child” (para. 74). The girl agrees not because that is what she wants but because she

knows that this simple promise will save her life. After this promise Rumplestiltskin starts

becoming greedy as he realizes that his overwhelming desire is getting closer to grasp. Later in

the story the miller’s daughter becomes the queen. When Rumplestiltskin went to redeem his
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prize, in reality he was immediately denied by the queen. However his own vast desires caused

him to see an impractical reality. Conveying Rumplestiltskin's thoughts Cunningham states

Then there is a moment—a milli moment, the tiniest imaginable fraction of time—when

the Queen thinks of giving her baby to you. You see it in her face. There’s a moment

when she knows that she could rescue you as you once rescued her, when she imagines

throwing it all away and going off with you and her child. (para. 141)

As readers we know that this is only Rumplestiltskin’s imagination and that the queen had

absolutely no intentions of giving up her firstborn child to this little man. For she only made the

promise to begin with in order to save her life and to show some gratitude, but due to the desires

of this little man he actually believed that the gifts and the promise she made resembled some

kind of love and affection towards him. However, the queen can be blamed for the death of the

little man because she in fact lead him on to believe that he would get her first born child.

Although the queen never even thought of giving up her child she lead the little man into an

unrealistic reality, inevitably causing him to be greedy and crave driven until he eventually rips

himself in half. By creating this greedy character whose strong desires eventually contort his

reality, Cunningham outlines how we as humans can naturally become blinded by our own

desires no matter how unrealistic they may be.

A craving is an unquenchable hunger that can never be silenced. A craving is stronger

than any desire, or subtle want. Literature helps to illustrate these immense cravings. In Charlotte

Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” there are multiple cravings that leads the main

character to have a distorted perception of her own reality. During this story the mysterious

nameless main character spends so much time in one single room that she starts hallucinate and
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begins seeing things in the patterns of the wallpaper. It started normal, as she was just picking

out little designs then it quickly progressed. Gilman’s nameless character states “At night in any

kind of light, in twilight, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of all by moonlight, it becomes bars!

The outside pattern I mean, and the woman behind it is as plain as can be” (554). As the story

progresses this mysterious figure in the wallpaper starts acting more and more like a person she

says that “The front pattern does move - and no wonder! The woman behind shakes it!” (557).

Obviously there is no woman living in the wallpaper, but the woman needs some company, she

needs to not be alone. So her craving to socialize, and to not be isolated starts causing her whole

reality to turn into some kind of dream, where she is awake but not present with the real world.

Also during the story the woman speaks about her room and her house as if it was an amazing

mansion in which she enjoyed living in. However when she explains the physical status of her

mansion it doesn’t seem as enjoyable as she sees it. She explains that she “enjoy[s] the room” but

it is bare she explains that “[The] bedstead is fairly gnawed!” because of the “children” and she

mentions the rope that she has and can use if the woman behind the wallpaper tries to leave. She

also refers to her tied down bed, which according to her is okay because it is safer. The woman

sees all of this completely opposite of what is really happening. In reality this woman was locked

away and isolated from the real world by her husband. Eventually she turned her desire to write

and socialize into a craving, thus creating a toxic place in where she initially lost touch with her

own reality. Gilman creates this character to illustrate the powerful effect that immense cravings

can have on the human mind and heart. Gilman wrote this to show that we as crave-driven

humans tend to imagine things that are not real based on our cravings. Much like the woman in
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the story we eventually create ghosts or spirits that will explain and show us what we want,

however, they are only manifestations of our own making.

Throughout time literature has been used for numerous reasons one being to help to teach

us something. Most authors in literature seem to have a common theme in their writing. That

theme being distorted realities and perceptions due to desire, obsession, and cravings. The

authors in all of these short stories taught their readers why people have different perceptions and

opinions, and how people go mad. It also shows us how easy it is to fall into these traps and how

common it is in society.​ ​As shown through multiple pieces of literature such as “Where Are You

Going, Where Have You Been”, “Once More to the Lake”, “Little Man”, and “The Yellow

Wallpaper”, we can see how a natural human condition can lead to something drastic or even

dangerous in a person's life. In the end of “Little Man”, his desires drove him so mad that it lead

to him to tearing himself apart. Just like how the dilusionary woman in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

was so focused on her imaginary figure in the wallpaper caused her to worsen until she

inevitably came to only know this unrealistic and distorted reality. Or like how in E.B. White’s

“Once More to the Lake” and Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”, where

each of the character’s vast cravings took over their bodies causing them to believe what they

WANT to believe, not what their true realities have to offer. Whether it be big or small

constantly thinking about one thing whether it be the past, a craving, a desire, or even an

obsession can lead to big problems. Focusing too hard on any one of these leads people to live

their lives almost as if it is their world and if they control it, it controls their heart and brains until

they begin to live in a distorted and unrealistic world.

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Works Cited

Cunningham, Michael. “Little Man.” ​The New Yorker,​ 3 Aug. 2015.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/little-man

Oates, Joyce. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” ​Literature The Human

Experience, St. Martins, ​1966, pg. 886-898

Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper.” ​Literature The Human Experience, St. Martins,

1892, pg. 548-560

White, E. B. “Once More to the Lake” ​Literature The Human Experience, St. Martins, ​1941, pg.

1305-1309