An Unquiet Mind

Medication acts as symbol of the larger illness itself. It is, of course, rather directly tied to any discussion of manic-depressive illness; as such, it is not a hidden symbol, but nevertheless, we can chart the progression and state of her manic-depressive illness through her use of lithium. For example, through Part 2, she frequently cycles through acceptance and rejection of her medication, despite her own particular illness being very effectively treated by it; this cycle of acceptance and rejection serves as a symbol of her own larger reckoning with the fact that she has manic-depressive illness and needs help managing it. Further, the effect lithium has on her is symbolic of the larger effect that the disease has on her; it is something of a catch-22 in that, at least initially, she must choose between a duller, but longer, life, and a more exciting, but likely shorter one; in fact, it is interesting that in order to treat her illness, her lithium levels needed to be nearly toxic, suggesting that even when treating it, she was always living on a precipice. She herself even chooses to use lithium symbolically as a means of suicide, reasoning that it had caused her so much pain in her life that it was only fitting that it be the means by which she ends it, too.