House Taken Over Summary & Analysis

While the narrator implies that he considers himself to be less important than Irene, his commentary is laced with judgement of Irene’s knitting. He thinks rereading books makes more sense than knitting useless garments, but actually neither activity seems more or less meaningful or productive than the other. Irene does seem to care more about creating something flawless, but it’s not clear to what end. Their inherited wealth allows for this lack of productivity, which is the same entitlement that drives and enables their desire to live in isolation from their community.

The layout of the house is important, as it breaks the space into two main portions: one is essential living spaces for the siblings, and one is extra communal space that nobody uses. The home is a metaphor for the siblings’ psyche, with the most secure and private rooms that they share coming first, the rooms that encapsulate the life of a big, active family relegated the back, and beyond the rear of the house lies the bustling city. In the same way, Irene and the narrator’s relationship is at the forefront of their lives, followed by the memory of a family that they try to preserve, and finally the dusty outside world they try to keep out. The unused family rooms are a buffer between the siblings and the city, just as their attachment to the past keeps them from creating their own families and futures.

It is significant that the spaces in the home that represent family time and communal living are the ones that the narrator and Irene can’t seem to keep clean. The siblings no longer have any desire for a romantic relationship or to continue their family line, so the space that represents that portion of their psyche is continually coated in dust coming in from the main road. This dust is an outside force disturbing their insular life, and it foreshadows the coming intruder.

The family rooms are the first ones that the unidentified force invades. Interestingly, the noises that the narrator hears sound like the noises that a family would make, so what might have been a welcome aspect of life (having children and extended family) has been reconfigured as a threat. The narrator’s immediate reaction is to assume ill-intent, moving to block out what he assumes is a malicious force. This indicates both a lack of trust in people and a belief that others wish to take what belongs to him. Up to this point, the siblings’ repetitive hobbies and dedication to maintaining their family dwelling imply a lack of interest in new things, but their refusal to engage with the invader to the point that they are willing to lose part of their home illustrates how adverse they are to the unknown. In addition, many people read this story as an allegory of Juan Perón’s rise to power (he was the Argentinian president at the time the story was written). When Perón was coming to power, he began taking people’s rights away, and Cortazar was disturbed at how easily he thought Argentinians accepted this. In this light, the siblings’ odd decision to simply lose access to most of their house rather than confronting the reality of the unsettling presence that has appeared seems like an allegory for the way that people’s impulse to deny reality can enable them to accept monstrous things.

Because the house functions as a symbol of the siblings’ identities, when they lose the rear rooms, their very lives seem to shrink; they streamline their routines, stop leaving the house, and rarely speak. No real effort, let alone thought, goes into their day-to-day lives any longer. This loss of both identity and quality of life is the price of letting aversion to the unfamiliar drive their decision making. It is significant that they accept this loss without any meaningful rection or grief, as if they believe that sacrificing some freedoms is worthwhile if they can preserve their comfort in what’s familiar.

The only sounds at night come from the siblings’ fitful sleep, which could suggest that the noise the narrator heard was never there to begin with. Instead, it could be a projection of the siblings’ fears. It also indicates that while the narrator and Irene may not need to think to function, both are experiencing subconscious turmoil that surfaces when they are asleep. Whether or not the sounds the narrator claims to hear are real, the subtext of this shared unrest underscores the psychological conflict at the center of their decisions.  

Though the siblings have adapted their daily lives so that they can preserve their insular existence, the unidentified force returns. No no amount of sacrifice can keep the world fully at bay, whether it comes in the form of dust or a cryptic presence. If that force is viewed as an imagined projection of the siblings’ fear, then its reemergence illustrates the way that acting out of fear may address the initial situation, but the fear itself has not been rooted out. The presence returns because it is not an actual threat, but merely a symptom of unaddressed internal dysfunction.

Just as Irene must let go of her knitting because the ball of yarn attached to it is trapped in the door, the siblings’ attachment to the past and to their family is trapped inside with the home. Since they will not open the door to confront the intruder, they must leave it entirely. As before, rather than face the invading force, the siblings’ fear of the unknown is so great that they abandon their home entirely. The thematic significance is the same if the mysterious presence is real or imagined. Throughout their lives, they have centered their identities around an elite, successful family that no longer exists. This leaves them so uninterested in their community and distrustful of others that they do not care what or who is in their home. They will give anything to maintain their seclusion, no matter the price.

Ultimately, their fear of the unknown costs the siblings everything. Standing in front of the house with nothing, they have an opportunity to overcome their debilitating fear and reclaim their home, but instead the narrator throws the key in the gutter, making it impossible for them to return. He feels disheartened by all they have left behind and concerned by his sister’s grief, but he still does not demonstrate any awareness of their new reality. Their inherited home, as well as the sense of history and the identity it symbolizes, are lost, leaving them destitute and exposed in a way they have never been. The very privilege that insulated them now leaves them fully unprepared to participate in the real world.