Tudy the chart of prefixes.
which word means "a quotation at the beginning of a novel”?
countersign
epigraph
introspection
neophyte

The word that means "a quotation at the beginning of a novel” is "epigraph".

Explanation: The word "epigraph" is a noun and it makes reference to a quotation, that is to say a phrase or sentence previously written or pronounced by another author, which is placed at the beginning of a piece of writing, such as a novel or a short story. The prefix contained in "epigraph", "epi-", also signals this meaning as "epi-" means "above" or "on top of".

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.