Although the fact that one "can't ever truly know what's going on inside somebody else" may doom such an endeavor to failure, the attempt, failed though it may be, leads one closer to establishing a self that can function in the world among others because, as Hayes-Brady writes, such an attempt forces a person to "accept his/her position as an other as well as a self."4 Without such acceptance, both self and other are lost in total noise. Wallace's choice of a keyhole for this metaphor characterizes the self as a door, a boundary with an opening through which one can peer and apprehend an other outside the self and thus become aware of both without inviting confusion or overrelation between the two. While the image of a closed (and locked) door may invite feelings of isolation and despair, such separation ensures the integrity and uniqueness of the self in a way that an open door does not.