Therapy

Therapy symbolizes the inescapability of Neal’s feelings of fraudulence. Neal attends therapy because he wishes to be free of his habits of disingenuousness. However, he soon concludes that Dr. Gustafson is not intelligent or adept enough to solve his problem. On the other hand, when Gustafson presents an idea that Neal views as potentially helpful to his situation—the idea of love-fear dichotomies—he kills himself soon after.

Decorative Bowl

The decorative bowl symbolizes the integral nature of fraudulence and dishonesty with regards to Neal’s identity. Neal recalls that when he was four years old, he used fairly sophisticated tactics of disingenuousness in order to evade blame for breaking a decorative bowl and shift the blame to her sister. Neal presents this anecdote as evidence that fraudulence has always been an integral aspect of his behavior.

Baseball

Baseball symbolizes the way in which Neal...