A Certain Hunger

Early in Dorothy’s prison stay, the inmates lose their writing privilege. After she receives her pens, she writes, “I tolerate humanity's crush in order to be allowed to write. I behave beautifully so that I have paper, pens, and occasional access to a computer. I suffer for my art” (21). It is immediately clear that she has a high opinion of her writing, believing that other people—humanity’s crush—are beneath her and that depriving such a being of her art is inhumane.

Writing is a representation of Dorothy’s methodical nature. Dorothy enjoys treating her murders and meals—the ones that are not impulsive—as games requiring extensive preparation and risk management. Writing a book-length story, whether it is a memoir or a novel, is also a type of game, a puzzle that challenges the author to test the limits of their reasoning and arguments.

She refers to her writing as her art, but it is really a record of her selfishness and the means by which she enriched herself. It also allows her to leave a record and to tell her story on her own terms. Writing is also an act of self-centeredness for Dorothy in this way. It allows her to grow and maintain an audience even while confined in prison. Ironically, Dorothy writes with real passion and is considered talented. She takes pride in her writing and has a disdain for sloppy prose and craftsmanship.

Because Dorothy is a writer, her mixed first- and second-person narration allows the author to indulge in decadent, flowery prose as a strategy to characterize Dorothy’s need to show off. There is a distinct impression that Dorothy writes to impress herself, as well as the reader. She also manages to characterize writing as a symbol of violence, very much in keeping with her character: “In life as in writing, you kill your darlings. You kill, anyway, and then you see what you can take with you” (171).