Why Does Becky Abertalli Use Of Realism

In the novel, Kate in Waiting, Becky Abertalli uses descriptive detail to convey Kate’s development from only seeing fantasy to seeing reality.
Abertalli uses descriptive detail to suggest that Kate is driven by fantasy. Over the course of the summer, Kate acts in a production with her best friend Andy. Andy and Kate live for the excitement of a “communal” crush and when they find Matt at theater summer camp, they both fall, “It's about the scheming in the prop closet and reading way too much into every flicker of eye contact” (3). Kate admitting she reads way too much into “every flicker of eye contact” depicts Kate falling for fantasies. She takes a simple thing, such as eye contact, and creates something bigger out of it. This exaggeration

When Matt tells Kate that he is gay, and that he’s dating her best friend Andy, Kate realizes it is impossible that Matt could ever like her back. She ends up going to a party with another friend Noah, a spark ignites, and in a moment they hold hands; a moment of reality quickly turns into fantasy,“And just like that, he lets go, and I don't know what to make of any of it. On the bright side, obsessing over the presence and absence of Noah’s hands makes for a more than decent distraction” (304). Kate “just like that” has not carefully picked or planned out, or orchestrated any of this in her head. She is developing a real authentic connection with Noah, and now has to be vulnerable. His dropping of her hand feels like a rejection, so she quickly returns to obsessing and fantasy to not have to deal with the vulnerability. She labels it a “distraction”, something insignificant convincing herself that she felt nothing. This interaction portrays Kate as afraid of reality and vulnerability. She is losing awareness of her fantasy, and is beginning to use it in everyday life to avoid negative feelings. “I don't know what to make of it” indicates Kate's concern and lack of control in the situation. Kate is afraid of the unknown, where she doesn’t have control. Her having a moment with Noah and being unsure of what it was, contributes to her feeling of lack of control. With being unsure, she has to be vulnerable as she doesnt know what will come of it next. When surrounded in fantasy she has complete control over the narrative she is living, and can protect herself from rejection and heartbreak. Reality is much different as she can't control the circumstances opening her up to these things she used to be able to escape from. Abertalli uses this differentiation between the fantasy narrative and reality narrative to portray Kate as insecure. Kate cannot deal with the