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7. Dream House as Inciting Incident
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 describes the Dream House from the vantage point of the street. Lining the driveway are the boys who had crushes on her when she was a girl, who paid her compliments or bought her gifts, including Adam, who wrote stories and songs for her. Thinking about the boys, Machado realizes that she didn’t trust their feelings for her because she didn’t love herself. She rejected their gentle gestures, and wonders what she was looking for.
Though Machado insisted in an earlier chapter that the Dream House is a real place, this description reveals that it takes on new, dramatic forms in her imagination, encapsulating not just one relationship but her whole romantic history. Her rejection of the boys’ gentleness suggests that she saw herself as undeserving of affection.
Themes
On the back patio of the Dream House, Machado sees her college life. She remembers having bad sex, including with a man for whom she drove across four states in the middle of winter, because she wanted to feel the kind of desire that was associated with driving so far for love. At that time in her life, she wanted someone to be obsessed with her.
Machado’s early romantic experiences seem to be less about her feelings for the people with whom she has sex or forms relationships and more about how she sees herself and how others see her. She’s more preoccupied with her existence as a character in a story than with experiencing a close connection.
Themes
Machado associates the kitchen with her time living in California, using dating apps to match with women. She didn’t find much success on those dates, because the women she dated were suspicious of her bisexuality, so she ended up dating men instead. The living room, office, and bathroom represent boyfriends, including one who she thought was perfect, but who broke up with her because he didn’t love her. Machado says of the bedroom, “don’t go in there.”
Machado’s dating experience with women hints at the larger issue of tension within the wider queer community. Even in that seemingly accepting space, there are divisions that make people feel unwelcome. Machado telling the reader not to go into the bedroom has an ominous tone—clearly, the things that happened in there are associated with danger and fear.
Themes
