A Certain Hunger

Many—perhaps even most—of Dorothy’s monologues have an underlying sexual charge. She is almost a combination of carnal and culinary need personified, a metaphor she agrees with when she describes one of her impulsive killings as “raw id” (208). This refers to one of Freud’s three categories that comprise a person’s psyche: the id, ego, and superego. The id is the hedonistic center that produces appetites. It requires, in Freud’s formulation, the ego and the superego to regulate it. An unchecked id is a destructive force that cannot account for the feelings of others. Dorothy is the human form of raw id.

As a creature of great and varied appetites, Dorothy prioritizes good food, wine, and sex over everything else. Each of Dorothy’s pleasures requires her to consume. Even in terms of her literary ability, she says she becomes a writer “to give voice to food’s consumption” (30), as if she is bearing witness on behalf of the consumed food. Dorothy frequently uses her cooking skills—and her sophisticated palate—to harm others while flattering herself. She has expensive tastes because she has an expensive appetite. When she gets to prison, the change in her diet is one of the first things she mourns.