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27. Dream House as Queer Villainy
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, in July, the weather is stormy. Machado and the woman from the Dream House plan a road trip down the East Coast. The woman’s parents, worried about road safety, try to convince them to fly instead of drive, so they agree to fly for the second half of the trip. Partway through the drive down, the woman kisses Machado in a parking lot and a group of men laugh and point.
The stormy weather, and the woman’s parents’ concerns, hint that the road trip is an inevitably dangerous pursuit: it seems that whatever shape their journey takes, something unpleasant is bound to happen. The parking lot incident emphasizes how Machado and the woman, along with all queer-presenting people, are at constant threat of ridicule.
Themes
