This is a typical coming of age book. Dolores ages on several levels over the course of this story. First, she ages naturally. She begins with memories of herself as a four-year-old and of their first television set. She progresses chronologically, including the summer of her parents' divorce, her enrollment in high school and then college, her breakdown, her marriage to Dante, and ending with her marriage to Thayer and the fact that she's come to peace with herself. When Dolores leaves college so abruptly and has a nervous breakdown, she's put back through her life by her psychoanalyst, Dr. Shaw. Dr. Shaw has her "relive" her life, beginning as a fetus. The method is apparently helpful, though Dolores will later deny that. Dolores also ages mentally, though it takes a long time.....
