Humor, Ignorance, and Denial Theme Analysis

Characters in The Dream House use humor to connect with one another but also to silence, deflect, or deny painful realities. Ultimately, therefore, the novel suggests that humor should not be one’s only mode of interacting with other people; to face reality, one has to be serious sometimes. Two of the novel’s central characters are the white South African farm owner Patricia Wiley and the Black South African man Looksmart, whose education Patricia paid for while he was growing up on her farm. Looksmart grew up during apartheid, a period of racial segregation and legally enforced white supremacy in South Africa. During Looksmart’s childhood, strict laws and social mores surrounding racial hierarchies shaped how Patricia and Looksmart could interact. Patricia used humor and “teasing” to demonstrate her quasi-maternal love for Looksmart in place of overt affection, which was disallowed between white and non-white people. In turn, Looksmart learned to tease her back. Humor thus enabled them to connect with each other, but it also helped Patricia ignore how racism affected their relationship. Similarly, Patricia uses humor to “silence” her husband Richard, which helps her cope with his unpleasantness but also blinds her to how horrible he truly is. Patricia doesn’t know that Richard murdered Grace, the girl that Looksmart loved—an event leading Looksmart to flee the farm. It is only after Looksmart returns many years later and has a serious conversation with Patricia about Grace—a conversation in which they laugh painfully or cynically at each other but never at each other’s jokes—that Patricia can finally recognize the realities that shaped and ultimately ended her quasi-maternal relationship with Looksmart.