The Woman in Suite 11

The motif of dreams helps develop the theme of The Effects of Trauma Due to Imprisonment. The first residual effect of trauma that the novel pictures is a nightmare. Lo’s unconscious mind makes her relive being trapped in the Aurora; her trauma is undesired remembering. The nightmare recurs in Chapter 23, when the in medias res Prologue occurs in the main narrative. Lo notes the frequency of “the bad old dream I’d had more times than I could count” (248). The dream is familiar and occurs even when her life is free of major stressors. However, in this specific moment, Lo is triggered by being a prisoner in a jail cell: her nightmare “come true.” She only dreamed of being imprisoned for a decade.

Lo has more fantastic dreams when she’s in the hospital after Pieter attacks her. She describes them as “the strangest dreams—dark, hallucinogenic dreams of the kind I hadn’t had since I was pregnant” (372). These dreams are about helping Pieter put his brain back together, chasing Carrie, who turns out to be Lo (Lo is chasing herself), and trying to reform Carrie’s phone with evidence that has turned to goo.