Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in There’s Someone Inside Your House, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma, Loss, and Grief
Guilt, Shame, and Redemption
Alienation
Gossip vs. Communication
Inner Change
Summary
Analysis
Rosemarie is in the stables brushing her horse, Moonlight. She hears the commotion of the corn maze in the distance and scowls at the drunken college students who’ve made this year’s corn maze a nightmare. She hates how people have transformed David Ware into an urban legend. Rosemarie finishes brushing Moonlight and goes to fetch the hay. She places the bucket full of grooming tools on the floor on her way out. She reaches into the darkness for the pitchfork, but it’s not there. After a moment, she finds it further back along the wall. She grabs the pitchfork and heads back to collect the bucket, but it’s gone. Then Rosemarie smells the unfamiliar scent of an unwashed human.
One idea the book poses repeatedly is the stark difference between the way people appear when they’re in a group and the way they are when they’re alone or in their own head. The collective town of Osborne either makes light of David’s murders or puts on public, superficial displays of mourning to cope with the murders. But as individuals, the townspeople tend to adopt a critical stance toward such superficial displays of grief. One of the reasons that people are so unknowable is because they often modify their outward behavior to fit in with the group. Finally, the moved pitchfork is a bad sign for Rosemarie, since by know the reader is well aware that David Ware messes with his victims’ belongings before he attacks them. The unwashed human Rosemarie smells is most likely David.
Themes
Meanwhile, Makani and her friends speed down the highway toward Rosemarie’s farm. Back at the farm, a slender body emerges from the darkness. It’s David Ware. He’s holding the grooming bucket, and he’s covered in dried blood. He removes his knife from its sheath and steps toward Rosemarie. Rosemarie grasps her pitchfork and attacks David.
Switching between Makani and her friends’ rapid dash to reach Rosemarie and Rosemarie’s encounter with David in the barn builds tension. As has been the case in David’s previous murders, his knife symbolizes his inability to work through his feelings of resentment toward Osborne’s more ambitious, impressive students. Unable to reflect inwardly on his lack of fulfillment, David turns to external methods—violent attacks on others—to cope with his feelings.
Themes
Meanwhile, Makani and her friends finally see the faint outline of Rosemarie’s farm in the distance. Ollie picks up speed, merging into the opposite lane to pass a car and nearly colliding with an oncoming semi-truck. Back on the farm, Rosemarie manages to drive the pitchfork into David’s side. He’s momentarily stunned. Rosemarie is too, and she pulls the sharp prongs out of David’s flesh. He stumbles and runs out of the stall. Uncertain of whether David has run away or decided to linger, Rosemarie emerges from the stables cautiously. She gets as far as the door before David’s hand emerges and grabs the pitchfork. He throws Rosemarie to the ground, but Rosemarie overpowers him. They see a pair of headlights coming straight toward them: Makani’s crew has arrived.
Tension ramps up as Rosemarie and David vie for control, and as it remains unclear whether Makani and her friends will arrive in time to save Rosemarie’s life. As was the case when David tried to attack Makani, the arrival of a crowd stops David in his tracks. It’s logical that being outnumbered stops David—it’s simply harder to attack somebody when you have a crowd of people ganging up on you. On the other hand, that large groups of people appear to be the only thing that can thwart David supports the book’s central theme that community and solidarity can be antidotes to personal suffering.
Themes
