According to erikson, if an elementary school child fails to succeed in learning new skills and knowledge, the result may be the development of a sense of

its confident and professional

as for symbolic actions, the narrator's tearing down the wallpaper in an attempt to find the "woman" in the wallpaper represents her struggle to retain or regain her sanity.   the wallpaper has been part of her confinement and by her tearing it down, she is freeing herself from that confinement.