Previous
141. Dream House as Anechoic Chamber
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
Machado describes the process of a group of humans leaving Earth, which in this scenario has become uninhabitable, to start a new world elsewhere. By the time they get to the new place, nobody can remember what Earth was like, and though they imagine it must’ve been terrible, they feel a sense of doubt. They call this doubt “nonstalgia.”
Machado’s depiction of this space-age group of humans bears a strong resemblance to the story of Lot’s wife that she explored in an earlier chapter. It seems she’s fixated on how people remember traumatic experiences. The gaps in memories leave room for people to feel uncertainty and perhaps even hope, however misleading it might be.
Themes
