The title Stitches doesn't make sense until you get to the third section—but when you finally see panels 119 through 122, we're pretty sure you'll gasp and clutch your throat.
For two weeks after the surgery that leaves him unable to speak, David can't do much more than sleep and watch television. But when he's finally strong enough to change his own bandages, he sees for the first time that the incision runs from his ear to the middle of his collarbones. As he describes it, he has "a crusted black track of stitches; my smooth young throat slashed and laced back up like a bloody boot" (3.120). Suddenly a tonsillectomy doesn't seem so bad, huh? Bring on the ice cream.
On a metaphoric level, the stitches in David's face are a shout-out to the healing he has to do to overcome his childhood. And because of this, the title of his graphic memoir is a shout-out to this journey, too.