Running head: PERCEPTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

Perceptions and Relationships in Picking Cotton

Matthew Beach
University of Kentucky

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2
Abstract

When it comes to how well the human mind can function under stress, the results are that it fails
completely sometimes. Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton are the main characters
in the book Picking Cotton. In it, Ronald is sent to jail after he allegedly rapes Jennifer one night
while she is in college. Ronald spent over a decade in prison until he was released due to the
case being reinvestigated to find that he was actually innocent. This essay discusses how Jennifer
and Ronalds communication skills were affected due to the trauma and stress they both endured
after their lives were drastically changed.

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Perceptions and Relationships in Picking Cotton

Sometimes our most vivid memories can be partially or even entirely wrong. Our senses
are even able to completely fail us when we need them most to create memories. Our perception
process becomes incredibly skewed when influenced by emotions such as stress. In the Common
Reading Experience book, Picking Cotton by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton, and
Erin Torneo, Jennifer is raped in her bed one night at knifepoint and later identifies her rapist.
Years later, the man she knew to be her rapist was released after he relentlessly worked with
lawyers to prove that he was actually innocent. Ronald Cotton, Jennifers accused rapist, was in
prison for over 10 years mostly in part because Jennifers perception process in her brain was
distorted by the trauma she endured. This paper will discuss how our perception process
becomes incredibly skewed when influenced by emotions such as stress.
Jennifers misidentification could be defined as an example of what is known as
unconscious transference. An eyewitness to a crime misidentifies a familiar but innocent person
from a police lineup. (Ross, p. 1). She gets to a point that she just wants to be done thinking
about the night of her attack over and over again that she starts to lose focus and begins to rush
things. She identifies Ronald based on his features, but what she identified was wrong. Many
variables can contribute to mistaken identification- for example a person is more likely to make a
mistake when trying to identify someone from a different race than their own. (Hastay).
Jennifer made this mistake because she recognized Ronald from pictures the police had shown

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her before and was just matching the faces. She knew the face was familiar but she didnt think
of why. This actually occurs quite often in court cases and ends up causes more problems than it
solves.
Jennifer wasnt just assaulted physically, but also emotionally. Deep down other things
were altered that affected her communication and perception skills (Boundless, 2015). A crime
victim or witness is likely to be emotionally aroused- feeling angry, afraid, sad, or even helpless.
The victim is also likely to feel some amount of stress. (Reisberg, p. 59). This stress affected
her sense of perception, self awareness, instinct, and memory. She would view the situation
differently than how it actually happened and ended up becoming paranoid as a cause of her self
awareness being on alert as a symptom of PTSD. Although her instinct was to study her
attackers features to help guide police, again stress got to her and twisted her memory (Ross, p.
67). Since Jennifer was fully convinced that Ronald Cotton was the man who had attacked her,
her communication became limited due to the fact that she was just trying to match Cotton to the
story instead of the other way around. She had the confidence to choose Ronald Cotton twice
probably not because he was the true rapist, but because she had remembered his face from
pictures she was shown before she went to the line up. Jennifer wasnt the only victim in this
case though; Ronald showed signs of limited perception processes as well. After hes sent to
prison he feels very alone and mistreated. Inmates try to intimidate him and sometimes even

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harm him and its clear that he feels very helpless. He writes letters to his lawyers, works out,
even gets different jobs in the prison to keep himself feeling human after he was accused of
doing an inhuman thing. Ronald and Jennifer are similar in that they both were forced into a life
they didnt want and, initially, struggled to adapt to.
Jennifer goes on to struggle with communicating her feelings to people about the events
that unfolded during the case. She begins to think of Ronald Cotton as a monster and hates him
for what hed done to her. She writes, His name was Ronald Cotton. I loathed the way is
sound... that bastard is going to be very sorry. (Thompson-Cannino, Cotton, Torneo, p. 43).
Ronald on the other hand takes a much calmer approach when he is convicted. He thinks to
himself at one point, Why? Why are you doing this to me? (Thompson-Cannino et al., p. 92),
but never at any point in the book does he end up hating his accuser, Jennifer. In his mind he
knows the truth and just wants it to come to light so he can get away from the new life he had
been thrown into. He doesnt go around looking to take his anger out on anyone in prison or
think of escaping. The only thing he focuses on is staying in contact with his lawyers to keep his
case open so he can one day be free. He sent several handwritten letters over the course of his
sentence that showed how well he was reacting to the situation. He stayed composed and
professional when drafting these letters to show that he wasnt a thug or a bad guy and eventually
his work paid off.

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Throughout the book there are other issues such a prejudice, self-esteem and stereotypes
that play a role in how the characters communicate. After the case, Jennifer begins to feel as if
shes a burden some times when she tries to talk to her lawyers, family, and fianc. Her family
makes her feel as if her rape wasnt that big of a deal and at times even brush it off because they
dont want to talk about it. Jennifer thinks, What exactly was my mother trying to
communicate? Did my rape not count because I had walked away? Was I fortunate to be living
this half life... but totally numb inside? (Thompson-Cannino et al., p. 56). Ronald struggles as
well when he hears about what hes been accused of. He recalls that hed been in trouble a few
times before and admitted that he wasnt liked very well by the officers who spoke to him during
the trial. The situation had a stereotypical feel to it because the officers talked about how they
wanted him off the streets and that they thought hed fit the part because he had dated white
women before. This mindset is another major reason why the wrong man was incarcerated. The
officers made assumptions based on Ronalds race and personal life but never stopped to clear
their minds of bias towards the man. Similar to how Jennifer made Ronald fit the part of her
rapist, the officers wrongly linked Ronald to the crime because their perceptions of him were that
he was the kind of man that would do such a thing.
With this lapse of brain function due to stress, two lives were completely changed. As
Ronald and Jennifer continued their lives after the rapes trials, they found it difficult to
communicate and live as peacefully as they had before. Jennifer struggled with venting her
feelings and overcoming her PTSD while Ronald struggled with communicating his thoughts and

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keeping his hopes alive. They are both prime examples of how ones perception process can be
altered to affect communication in a persons life.

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References
Boundless. (2015, August 20). Introducing the perception process. Retrieved from
http://www.boundless.com/psychology.
Hastay, L. (2009). Picking Cotton | eyewitness ID. Retrieved from
http://www.pickingcottonbook.com/eyewitness.
Reisberg, D. (2014, October 23). The science of perception and memory - Oxford University
press. Retrieved from http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product.
Ross, D. (1999, December). Unconscious transference and mistake identity: When a witness
misidentifies a familiar with innocent person. Retrieved from
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.
Innocence Project. (2009, March 6). Picking cotton: Innocence project. Retrieved from
http://www.innocenceproject.org