Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
What is it about dead childhood pets? They haunt our memories and family photographs, lie eternally in our backyards, and cause us to spontaneously burst into tears from simply hearing the Old Yeller theme song. It's funny how our animal friends can come to symbolize our nostalgia for childhood and a kind of relationship that we just don't have with people. This is exactly what happens in One Whole and Perfect Day when Lily thinks the ghost of Lonnie's long-lost hamster is haunting her.
Lily first glimpses what she thinks might be Seely when she cuts class to make sure she didn't leave the teapot on. When Lonnie was in sixth grade, the hamster got out of his cage, and "Lonnie had claimed, still claimed, even now, that those mysterious scuttlings in their walls at night were made by […] an old, old Seely" (6.16). When she cautiously moves closer to the hamster corpse, she realizes it's not Seely at all, but a wet, gray dishcloth that her mother accidentally dropped on the floor.
But this isn't all. The next time Seely makes an appearance, he has blood on him—okay, actually, it's tandoori sauce. And yes, it's the washcloth again. This time, Lily just throws the thing away.
What's going on here? Is Lily delusional? Is Seely her imaginary dead hamster like Sef is Nan's imaginary friend? Worry not—Lily doesn't have a screw loose. Instead, Seely's a symbol of the incongruity in Lily's life.
What do we mean? Well, all kinds of stuff Lily's going through doesn't add up. She feels "middle-aged" (6.9) at age sixteen, is preoccupied with cooking and cleaning instead of boys and the latest Bestie issue, and—oh yeah, we almost forgot—her family's kind of nuts. To her, all of these things make about as much sense as an ancient hamster crawling around in the walls like a modern-day Mr. Jingles.
Furthermore, while Lily may be "the sensible one in the family" (2.1) and thinks that Lonnie is largely "like a toddler" (2.11), maybe part of her does want his fantasy about Seely being alive to be true. Even if it goes against her practical nature, perhaps she would like it if old Seely were still somewhere in the house, "perhaps with a wife and children" (6.16). Or maybe he's a grandpa now and carries a tiny ax. How's that for metafiction? Lily may be super on top of things, but Seely lets us know that maybe—just maybe—she'd like not to be. At least for a little while.