The narrator’s bedroom symbolizes his idealized experience childhood before his family fell on hard times. In better times, the narrator’s parents went so far as to install a yellow sink in the bathroom that was the perfect size for a child, something that made the narrator feel loved, cared for, and at home. Being evicted from his bedroom when the family falls on hard times, then, represents the way in which the narrator was suddenly and unceremoniously thrust out of childhood and into the real, terrifying, and complicated world of adults. Notably, the narrator chooses not to return to his bedroom at the end of the novel, after Ursula vacates it. This rejection of his formerly beloved room represents a kind of coming of age: the narrator’s experiences with Lettie leave him wary of that idealized vision of childhood, and though not entirely at home, he’s far more comfortable in the adult world.
The Narrator’s Bedroom Symbol Timeline in The Ocean at the End of the Lane
