“In the eyes of others, we’re often not who we imagine ourselves to be.” 

Rachel begins her narrative by talking about a key theme—how appearance confers credibility. She badly misjudges how people will react to her appearance. Their negative response, in turn, degrades her perception of herself. 

“If there’s so much potential for others to judge us wrongly, then how can we be sure that our assessment of them in any way resembles the real person that lies underneath?” 

The inability to accurately assess other people’s motives lies at the heart of the story. Everyone fails to recognize Joanna as evil. Such errors in judgment ultimately lead to trust issues with the world as a whole. 

“If I’d imagined beforehand that an honest display of myself, and my emotions, however raw, might garner me some sympathy and galvanize people into helping me look for Ben, I was wrong. They saw me as a freak show.” 

Rachel again emphasizes the importance of shaping perceptions. Joanna is a master manipulator precisely because she knows how to do this. Rachel’s honesty fails where duplicity would have succeeded.