I do exist, don’t I?
-- Eleanor Oliphant (Narrator) (chapter 1)

Importance: This thought expresses Eleanor’s feeling of being unimportant and undesired in the world. Eleanor struggles to believe that she has any influence or significance because she has had no control over what happened to her throughout most of her childhood. She questions her existence at present because of her lack of meaningful relationships.

I don’t need anyone else—there’s no big hole in my life, no missing part of my own particular puzzle. I am a self-contained entity.
-- Eleanor Oliphant (Narrator) (chapter 1)

Importance: This belief exhibits Eleanor’s confidence in herself and her identity. Even though she comes to question her stagnant lifestyle choices later in the novel, she is comfortable with her current state of being in the beginning of the novel. People in Eleanor’s life, like Mummy and Declan, have let her down, so she sees her independence and lack of loving relationships...