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
In the present day, Machado imagines her story as a lesbian pulp novel with its collection of tropes, including tragedy. She wonders whether, centuries ago, a creature might’ve wandered over the land where the house now stands and heard the ghosts of people yelling and crying.
This chapter allows Machado to explore a niche in literature into which she might fit—the lesbian pulp novel. The fact that tragedy is a key ingredient of this genre highlights the lack of stories in which lesbian relationships end happily. It’s just one of the many gaps that make up the “archival silence” Machado explored in the book’s prologue.
Themes
