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20. Dream House as Folktale Taxonomy
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 Iowa, Machado and the woman from the Dream House fall in love, and the woman feels she needs to talk to Val, who she’s been with for three years, about how to proceed. Machado feels a twinge of guilt amongst her feelings of infatuation. Her emotions are wild and out of control.
Machado compares her emotions to a menagerie—a chaotic jumble of wild animals. Even though pleasure and desire are part of this menagerie, Machado lacks the power to control her feelings—a sign that her relationship with the woman is also out of her control.
Themes
