Throughout the novel, there is a “continuous conflict between the real world and the narrator’s desperate reconstruction of it” (Newman 423). Esther is constantly under the pressure of living to society’s expectations of an adolescent. The persistent weight of high expectations becomes oppressive. Within the confines of her world, events of Esther’s life are becoming distorted made worse by her depression. The contortion of thoughts begins after she experienced electroshock therapy with Doctor Gordon. The shock brought back unpleasant memories that fostered even more distortions. Esther tells her mother that she will not go back to Doctor Gordon, but Mrs. Greenwood misinterpreted the reason of why Esther does not return. She tells her daughter,
