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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 remembers how her aunt treated her cruelly when she was a child, telling her that if her parents divorced, it’d be her fault, and getting angry at tiny things Machado did. Machado’s mother—her aunt’s sister—tried to explain the aunt’s behavior as being a response to pain and the hardships of being a single mom. As an adult, the aunt told Machado once that she didn’t believe in gay people; Machado responded, “We believe in you.”
Machado has had to deal with abuse at the hands of more powerful people since she was a child, and she’s used to people providing excuses for others’ harmful behavior. Of course, even if there were a reason for the aunt’s behavior, it still hurt Machado—as does the abuse from the woman from the Dream House many years later.
Themes
