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51. Dream House as Appetite
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 deeply values having her own space. She believes that it’s special for children to have their own private rooms. When she was a child, Machado’s mother would constantly remind her that her bedroom was not her own—she was merely allowed to be in there. Looking back, she sees that this made her feel like nothing belonged to her and anyone could take things away from her when they wanted to. Once, she locked her bedroom door, and her parents removed the doorknob, reminding her that she couldn’t even control her own privacy.
Machado’s memory of her parents removing her doorknob highlights that an early experience of having one’s security taken away can have deep reverberations later in their life. In this case, Machado learning that she couldn’t depend upon having privacy and safety might have contributed to her inability to defend her boundaries against the woman from the Dream House many years later.
Themes
