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54. Dream House as Lost in Translation
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
Later in the fall, the woman from the Dream House asks Machado to go with her to the Harvard-Yale football game. Machado drives down so that she can bring the woman back to Indiana after the game. When they leave New Haven after the festivities, Machado gets behind the wheel because the woman is a reckless driver. They drive for hours before the woman asks her why she won’t let her drive. Machado feels a sense of dread. The conversation escalates into an argument; the woman claims Machado is too tired to drive, hates her and wants her to die. Eventually, she calls Machado a “selfish bitch” over and over.
Machado’s willingness to drive down so she can give the woman a ride back demonstrates her habit of helping and supporting the woman, but the woman isn’t satisfied by this alone. In this moment, she attempts to gain complete control over not only Machado’s actions but also her thoughts. Machado is attempting to keep both of them safe, but for the woman, safety is less important than power.
Themes
Machado pulls off the highway into a gas station. The woman from the Dream House gets out and walks around; when she returns to the car, Machado runs to get into the passenger seat. The woman drives at 80 or 90 miles per hour for some of the trip and Machado remembers seeing wrecked vehicles along the side of this road when she drove it in the past. When she holds onto the door, the woman tells her to stop.
This chapter’s title contains a reference to the River Lethe, one of the rivers of the underworld in Greek mythology. For Machado, the route home is like the Lethe, strewn with reminders of death from her memory. This gives the scene a feeling of doom, as if the danger Machado is experiencing is fated and inevitable.
Themes
On the final stretch of the drive, the woman from the Dream House starts to fall asleep at the wheel. Machado asks her to pull over, but she doesn’t stop. Machado feels sure she’s going to die. They finally pull into the driveway of the Dream House early in the morning. Machado sits outside watching coyotes on the lawn. When the woman wakes up, she makes coffee and jokes with Machado as if none of the previous night happened.
The woman falling asleep at the wheel proves what Machado already knew—that she, not the woman, should have driven the car. It’s physical proof that the woman is gaslighting her, trying to convince her to believe what she knows to be untrue. The woman’s joking the following morning once again demonstrates her inability to register how Machado is feeling.
Themes
