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31. Dream House as Man vs. Nature
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, Val, and the woman from the Dream House stay at a friend’s house in New York. They smoke a lot of weed, which makes Machado feel uncomfortable, but she doesn’t decline because she knows that’d make the woman unhappy. Machado celebrates her birthday and is too high to stand up, so she sits on the kitchen floor. The guests seem concerned for her. Val gives her some food and helps her up, and she goes to another room to sleep.
Machado puts herself in circumstances of physical and emotional discomfort—or even danger—rather than upsetting the woman. In this instance, she also sacrifices feeling the enjoyment of her own birthday party. It’s clear that her relationship with the woman means she prioritizes damage control over pleasure. Meanwhile, Val appears to be a more empathetic companion to Machado than the woman is.
Themes
