comment on theme

The author uses the theme of repression to demonstrate the narrator's inability to understand her feelings and express her despair in a healthy way. The narrator claims she is not depressed and that she is not grieving for her parents, however she behaves in an increasingly reckless manner that indicates a severe mental imbalance. Her intention to sleep away an entire year of her life by abusing prescription medication is not a mission any sane person would undertake. In fact, it would be reasonable to say that the narrator has a suicidal death wish at this time.