The motif of locked rooms and doors pervades the novel, representing the fragile boundaries of the self and the desperate need for a protected psychological space. For Natalie, her small, square room at college is a “new clean box to live in” (51), a sanctuary where she can retreat from a hostile and confusing world. Her obsession with keeping the door locked is a physical manifestation of her attempt to guard her psyche against external violation. This private space allows her to indulge in the fantasies and internal dialogues that are part of the Fragmentation of Identity as a Survival Mechanism. The locked door is the barrier that separates the chaotic outer world from the equally chaotic, but private, inner world she is trying to navigate. It symbolizes her attempt to maintain control over her own identity when all other forces, like her father, her professors, and her peers, seek to define and control her.

The sanctity of this space is shattered when Vicki and Anne casually admit to trespassing. Vicki’s careless remark, “We were in your room the other day while you were out” (89), is a key moment, representing a deep violation of Natalie’s selfhood. This act highlights how Class-Based Social Hierarchies as an Obstacle to Solidarity function within the college, as the girls’ social entitlement allows them to disregard Natalie’s personal boundaries. The ease with which they bypass her lock demonstrates the futility of physical defenses against social and psychological intrusion, reinforcing Natalie’s isolation and forcing her to retreat further inward to protect her identity.

The novel’s title and epigraph introduce its central symbol: The Hanged Man, a figure from both folk ballads and the Tarot. In Tarot, this card represents suspension, trial, sacrifice, and the gaining of new wisdom by seeing the world from a different perspective. This symbol perfectly encapsulates Natalie Waite’s psychological journey. She is suspended between the oppressive world of her family and the alienating environment of college, and between childhood and adulthood. The epigraph, taken from a ballad, implores the executioner, “Slack your rope, Hangsaman, / O slack it for a while” (xxi). This plea frames Natalie’s experience as a painful, protracted trial, a state of hanging in limbo where she is a passive victim awaiting a resolution. The entire narrative explores this state of suspension, as Natalie endures the psychological pressures that threaten to destroy her.

The Hanged Man also symbolizes the necessary sacrifice inherent in Natalie’s coming-of-age. Her identity fragments as a coping mechanism, and parts of herself, like her innocence, her dependency, and her fantasy life with Tony, must be sacrificed for her to emerge as a whole person. This process is a key aspect of the Fragmentation of Identity as a Survival Mechanism, where the fragmentation of one’s identity is a prerequisite for reintegration, rebirth, and growth. The “new perspective” offered by the Hanged Man is the hard-won clarity Natalie achieves in the final pages. After confronting and abandoning Tony in the woods, she is finally “alone, and grown-up, and powerful” (218). She has endured the suspension and made the sacrifice, and in doing so, has inverted her world to see it, and herself, anew.