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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in In the Dream House, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Queer Visibility
Christianity and Shame
Abuse, Trauma, and Healing
Storytelling, Responsibility, and Freedom
Summary
Analysis
Back in the timeline of the Dream House, Machado sits down to watch a movie with her roommates John and Laura. As soon as it starts, she falls asleep, feeling safe and content. When she wakes up, she frantically searches for her mobile phone. The woman from the Dream House has called and texted her several times. Machado calls her back. The woman asks her who she was having sex with.
Machado breathlessly tries to tell the woman from the Dream House that she wasn’t having sex with anyone and says John and Laura can prove that. Upon hearing this, John looks “flattened with grief.” The woman says there’s no need for proof. For Machado, the moment when she woke up from her nap, feeling safe, was one of the best moments of her year.
John’s reaction to hearing Machado desperately try to defend herself is an outward expression of the futility of her relationship. There’s no way Machado can really satisfy the woman’s desire for control, and her efforts to do so border on the absurd.
Themes
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