Perspective
Doty encourages the reader to appreciate the importance with which he understood perspective in shaping the way one sees the world. For Doty, the conversation about perspective includes imagery and symbols, including the Dutch perspective box which is a symbol that literally changes one's experience of sight by framing it in a context. The imagery is therefore one of context. When he writes about his childhood, he is urging the reader to put their self into his shoes to see the world through the limited context of innocence, disappointment, and childhood misunderstanding.
Misbehavior and punishment
Although for Mark, life was a drama of earning approval from expressionless parents, his sister abandoned that pursuit and made her life into a grandiose display of rebellion and misbehavior. Doty writes extensively about the way that his experience of desire and approval seeking contrasts with his sister's passion for freedom, attention of the negative variety, and her willingness to be punished if it meant doing what she wanted. For them both, the portraits are expressions of sadness and disappointment, because they seek something their parents neglected to give them.
Marriage and religion
Interestingly, the rebellious nature in Sally and the obedient nature in Mark reverse in their adulthood. Each of them go in the opposite direction in the issue of marriage. Sally realizes her need for marriage, religion, and stability. Of course, her experience of marriage is in keeping with the pain and frustration of her life, and when the husband, a fundamentalist Christian, abandons her for a younger woman, she turns to prostitution for a season. We see her life as a desperate attempt to establish order and control with a wild nature that pushes her to be extreme whenever she lacks peace.
Homosexuality and repression
Like that perspective toy from his childhood, Mark ultimately learns that he has been holding another perspective toy that also shapes his understanding of reality. When he finally puts down the desire to please his parents, he realizes that he can see reality in a whole new way. He realizes that in fact, he is gay and has been actively repressing this through self-humiliation and shame for the duration of his life. He decides to appreciate who he really is, and he accepts his penchant for art and poetry, appreciating finally his feminine qualities and his desire to be with a man. He pens this memoir as a remembrance to his life of struggle and sadness.
