The yellow afghan shawl is a symbol of repressed memory and the selective ways the mind protects itself from trauma. From the outset, Lisey’s grief after Scott’s death is compounded by her inability to fully recall certain aspects of their life together, particularly Scott’s past and his experiences with Boo’ya Moon. The afghan appears as a comforting, domestic object that was gifted to them after their wedding. At the same time, however, it is tied to hidden memories that Lisey has repressed, both consciously and unconsciously, underscoring The Value of Confronting and Accepting the Past.

The afghan first appears in Lisey’s memory of Scott’s catatonic state. During December 1996, Scott emotionally disappears, as he begins drinking, stops writing, and slowly disengages from his life with Lisey. On multiple occasions, she finds him sitting in front of the television in the middle of the night, watching television and wrapped in the afghan. As a result, the afghan becomes symbolic of this memory that she has repressed. When she goes to Boo’ya Moon to find him, she easily identifies him because of the afghan, as it intrudes upon the white shrouds that everyone else wears. After saving Scott’s consciousness, she is forced to leave the afghan behind in Boo’ya Moon, a fact which metaphorically represents her abandonment and repression of this memory.

At the end of the novel, the afghan reappears when Lisey discovers that Scott has repurposed it into a trail to his final manuscript. Lisey follows the yellow yarn, just as she followed her memories throughout the novel, to actively confront and engage with the past. As Lisey leaves Boo’ya Moon for the final time, she takes the yellow afghan with her and uses it as an anchor to the real world, symbolically representing her reclamation of trauma as part of her life that shapes who she has become.