What is to be free if one’s assumed concept of freedom is merely dictated by a moral, aesthetic, and cultural standard? Both works of literature equally as controversial as they are seminal, William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer aim to subvert art and beauty, thus creating a raw, unscathed metaphor for the human condition. The lens into the reconstructed and redefined realities of both texts are narrators William Lee of Naked Lunch and the almost entirely nameless narrator of Tropic of Cancer, whose addictions highlight the external forces that are entirely in control over human consciousness. Moreover, the hard-hitting, absurdist jargon and blatant taboo expressed in both texts serves as yet another addictive