Applegate’s diaries and journaling practice are a motif for self-evolution. In the Prologue, she claims that she has kept a regular journal since she was a teenager. The practice has thus been a key aspect of Applegate’s life since she was a child, and through writing, she has learned how to chronicle her experiences and process her feelings.

In the context of You With the Sad Eyes, Applegate incorporates excerpts from her journals over the years to present a more authentic version of herself to the world: “In my closet there is a locked box of all my journals […] Lucky you—the box is open. I’m going to extensively quote from those journals. I’ve kept meticulous records, all too aware that those pages were the only place I could share the unfiltered truth” (10). By interspersing her retrospective adult perspective with the youthful perspective found in these journal entries, Applegate underscores how much she has changed over the years. Further, these diary excerpts invite the reader into the intimate details of Applegate’s past. She does not gloss over her difficult experiences or neatly package them in retrospect. Rather, the journals are a direct gateway into her personal history. Paired with her present-day point of view, the journal entries underscore how much Applegate has learned and changed over the course of her life.

Applegate’s grandmother’s home in South Bend, Indiana, is a symbol of innocence and peace. For years, Applegate valued her regular visits to South Bend to see her grandmother and spend time with her mother’s side of the family. South Bend was completely different from Laurel Canyon, and Applegate often found herself marveling at how normal this midwestern world was compared to her chaotic upbringing in California. “Being in Indiana,” Applegate explains in Chapter 3, “brought me such a beautiful feeling of family that I didn’t otherwise have” (62). While there, Applegate could connect with a more settled version of reality she otherwise couldn’t access in Laurel Canyon.

When Applegate brought her boyfriend to South Bend, she unintentionally disrupted the peace of this place for herself. The boyfriend making a scene over the family movies and attacking Applegate in her grandmother’s spare bedroom casted a violent, threatening mood over the once idyllic domestic sphere.