House Taken Over Themes

Home and Identity

In “House Taken Over,” the unnamed narrator and his sister Irene live together in their inherited family home, and their experiences depict how homes can both reflect and shape their inhabitants’ identities. The siblings’ house is filled with relics of the many generations who previously lived there, holding the rich family history that the narrator and Irene cherish. The way the siblings arrange and live in the house also reflects their isolated and rather mundane…

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Fear of the Unknown

The house in which the narrator and sister Irene live is a space they have inherited, and the narrator explains that they have no need to work for pay either, as they live comfortably off the earnings from the family farm. Because of this generational wealth, the siblings do not need to strive in order to survive, nor do they have any need to participate in their community in Buenos Aires. Instead, they stay inside…

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The Past

As the narrator describes the ancestral house in Buenos Aires that he and his sister Irene share, it is clear that they greatly revere their home. While he admits that they live alone in a space that is much too large for them, he cherishes the history of past generations of their family who lived in the house. In devotion to this history, the adult siblings spend an inordinate amount of time tidying the vast…

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