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138. Dream House as Parallel Universe
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
When Machado’s abusive relationship began, she wanted to believe she was the only one feeling that particular kind of love and pain. Seeing her experience represented in a pie chart felt terrible, as did the fact that there was a book about lesbian abuse published the year she was born, yet she still had to find out through experience. She imagines that in the future, she’ll teach young queer people that, even though their existence is on the margins, people who share their identities can still hurt them.
Machado suggests that sometimes representation isn’t a glorifying or completely positive phenomenon. Still, it’s important to advocate for broad and diverse representation, not only to uplift marginalized identities, but to reflect reality back at them so they’ll have a better chance of making safe decisions.
Themes
