Robert Olen Butler's Story "The Titanic Victim Speaks Through the Waterbed" is narrated by the ghost of a deceased victim on the Titanic, whose spirit continues to haunt the waters in which he dwelt. Moving from the ocean to a cup of tea, and now to his current residence, a waterbed, the narrator describes his struggle through corporeal life. His struggle for something real, something physical. Throughout the story, Butler uses the narrator's actions and emotions to describe the need for human interaction and a meaningful life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayPhysical and emotional contact between others has always been an integral part of cognitive and emotional development. Our brains are cognitively programmed to enjoy and desire human interaction. We crave it, and without it we feel incomplete. This sort of "emptiness" is expressed repeatedly by the narrator throughout Butler's story, both in his physical and spiritual state. Not only does he make it clear that he has never had any deep human interaction beyond saying "hello" and "goodbye", he also expresses great sadness and regret for this fact, unable to leave his beyond due to the exorbitant amount of grief. In order to describe the narrator's lack of physical contact in his previous life, Butler uses both metaphors and personality traits. By using cigarette smoke to denote a sort of barrier, Butler also gives us a clue to the narrator's complete disregard for the human body. He even goes so far as to remark: “The body has never been a very interesting thing for me. Except perhaps to inhale the heavy plume of smoke from my cigar. You need a body to smoke a good cigar” (4). This comment alone shows obvious carelessness brought on by years of a seemingly solitary lifestyle. Before going out to investigate the reason for the ship's abrupt stop, the narrator states that he is reluctant to leave their company, although he has "said to neither of them more than two words, beyond from 'Good evening'” (4). . His antisocial and indifferent attitude testifies to a simple and independent man. However, we are quickly taught that his indifference is not what it seems. When the narrator passes a lone woman on the stairs, we see that her avoidance of human interaction stems more from her inexperience than from her carelessness. As the woman speaks of their immediate plight, he feels a strong, unrecognizable need to comfort her, going so far as to ask, "Is this a whirlwind in what was once my mind?" A stirring of the water in which I am held? I shudder and suddenly I see it clearly: my desire to comfort her came from an impulse stronger than what duty would strictly require” (7). From the outside, it seems like he's just overwhelmed by her and wants to be closer and closer to her during their final moments. However, once you look beneath the surface, a much deeper meaning can be revealed. Allan Weiss helps show this meaning in his essay "Cycles Within Cycles: Mini-Cycles in Robert Olen Butler's Fiction" when he writes: "[The narrator] swims both literally and figuratively in his own past, and in As the story progresses, he sees once again how he missed so many opportunities for love and connection” (73). As he feels his last moments passing, his reflection on his life proves insufficient, and his physical characteractively seeks to satisfy this desire before the end of his stay on earth, while his spiritual character reflects on many unsuccessful attempts. When he first meets this woman, his feelings begin to grow even stronger. He now begins to describe in detail the feeling of being "empty." With the phrase: “That’s when I knew for sure she was right.” I knew the ship would sink and I would die” (10), it is obvious that he has lost all hope not only in his physical being, but also in his spiritual life. Numb and dissatisfied, he can't stop thinking about the woman, wondering if she's okay, praying that she lives. Unable to relax in his room, the narrator sets out to find her. He emphasizes his concern to find her, the need for something familiar and physical. With each unfamiliar face, he becomes more and more stressed, especially when he realizes he didn't even know his name. Reflecting on this, he comments: "This realization should have freed me from my search, but in fact I have become very intense now in finding it" (11). His desire for human interaction pulls him out of his comfort zone and into the cold night in search of it, leaving him with thoughts and emotions he knows nothing about. As the night wears on and his death seems more imminent, the narrator strives to find emotional and physical contact through any means possible. An example of this is shown when he explains his desire that she share with him alone the understanding of their immediate danger. Keeping this information between them only would have provided some sort of privacy, enough to allow him to live out his final hours. Another example is when she reaches out to adjust her tie before boarding the lifeboat. “I prepared myself for his touch,” he explains, describing himself as “breathless” (Butler 12). He craved her touch, longed for any act of closeness, and yet, he had never initiated any type of affection towards her. Some would say this is due to nervousness, but I argue that it has a deeper influence on one's own knowledge of relationships. The narrator just didn't know how to behave on that level with another human being. He is not so much ignorant, but naive and innocent. Sheltered, barricaded by his smoke and by himself for so long that being solitary is all he has come to know. Recognizing that “she must have understood what it means to live in a body,” he may even feel intimidated by her presumed capacity and experience of human contact and relationships. And even if he wants to live the same experience, these few moments he shared with her were not enough to change the life of a recluse. Once the woman boards the lifeboat and is no longer within reach of the narrator, his feelings of being "empty" and "already dead" become more abundant and frequent. Even before his death, he speaks to several times of being dead. “I stood in front of her and my arms were dead, my hands could no longer move. My hands and arms were already dead, it seemed, they had already sunk deep under the sea. for they moved not” (Butler 12, his spiritual body continues to feel this death and desolation, recognizing even today what his physical being has lost and what his spiritual being can never have). Looking down at the couple lying above him in the waterbed, he describes his sudden revelation. “I know now what has brought me to silent sorrow throughout my incorporeal life. I interrupted with my cry…They had known how to raise their hands and touch each other” (Butler 13). Missing her. 2013.