House Of Leaves Sparknotes

718 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Mark Z. Danielewski House of Leaves analysis

The Novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski uses two characters of his own creation to construct the book in its entirety. The first contributor, Zampano, who is the author, who may or may not be trustworthy of the interpretation of The Navidson Record, because he is blind. Early on in his efforts to finish the book he dies under suspicious circumstances. At this point, Danielewski employees another to contribute, Johnny Truant, who composes the introduction and notes for the book. Zampano documents the Navidson Record which is about Will Navidson and his family. Navidson calls his brother Tom and a family friend, Billy Reston, to investigate a hallway that appears out of nowhere between two rooms. Once a labyrinth appears in the house, …show more content…

Within the first few pages of the novel the reader can see that not only is the book bigger on the inside than the outside, because of the one inch difference between the cover and the inside of the book itself. To find subtle differences one must go searching through the novel for the answers. Throughout the novel the word house is always in blue, let it be discussing the Navidson house or a random house that is being referred to. For a reader to find out the meaning of this small change they must go into the back of the book, to the Appendix and find one untitled poem that sheds light on the meaning of why the house is in blue; this illustrates that just as the labyrinth is hard and confusing to navigate, so is the book; to find answers one must go searching or hunting for them (Danielewski 563). While reading the story one can see that the characters are also larger on the inside than the outside, the person they show to their loved one can conflict with the person the character truly wants to be. When the hallway first appears in the home Karen asks Navidson to “ promise [her] that [he] won’t go in there again… Navidson cradles her in his arms like a child and promises [her]” (Danielewski 57). This shows that to Karen, Navidson portrays himself to her as she wants him to be. When

Show More
Related

  • Isolation In The Yellow Wallpaper, By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

    1411 Words  | 3 Pages

    In addition, she always talks about the moonlight during these times of night. When the moonlight is not present, the narrator is not active. Her husband comes to visit and she does not do much. But at night, when her husband is sleeping, the narrator wakes up and starts walking around the room. The protagonist believes that there is a woman trapped by the wall, and that this woman only moves at night with the night light. The allusion to this light is not in the beginning of the story, but in the end. “She begins to strip of the wallpaper at every opportunity in order to free the woman she perceives is trapped inside. Paranoid by now, the narrator attempts to disguise her obsession with the wallpaper.” (Knight, p.81) In the description of the yellow wallpaper and what is seen behind it there are sinister implications that symbolize the closure of the woman. It implies that any intellectual activity is a deviation from their duties as a housewife. Her marriage seems to be claustrophobic as her won life, a stifling confinement for a woman's creativity. As imaginable, such treatment and "solitary confinement"(Knight, p.86) will do nothing but worsen her condition, affecting

    Read More

  • Gothic Elements in House of Leaves

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    Architecture by far, plays the greatest role in the book. The house itself causes the events in the book to unfold. Supposedly built in 1720, it has housed approximately 0.37 owners a year, most of who were traumatized in some way. William (Navy) and Karen Navidson, the current owners of the house, are included in this select group. Though they move into the house as an attempt to repair their marriage, it is what that ultimately drives them apart. The first sign of trouble is the appearance of a long, cold, dark hallway. The house, larger on the inside than it is on the outside, causes Navidson to investigate the house and serves as the catalyst for the destruction that follows.

    Read More

  • The Narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    All through the story, the yellow wallpaper acts as an antagonist, causing her to become very annoyed and disturbed. There is nothing to do in the secluded room but stare at the wallpaper. The narrator tells of the haphazard pattern having no organization or symmetrical plot. Her constant examination of and reflection on the wallpaper caused her much distress.... ...

    Read More

  • Book Analysis: The Sacred Willow

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Sacred Willow (2013) describes the modern Vietnamese history from the 19th to the end of 20th century through Mai Elliott’s personal experience, as well as stories from four generations of her family. Starting with her great grandfather's struggle to become an imperial government official, the book follows the author’s family’s cycle of fleeing violence and building wealth, almost re-starting from zero everytime. It goes further than many books on the French Colonisation of Vietnam and the Vietnam war, taking a closer look at into people of Vietnam, rather than from a geopolitical or military aspect. Since the author and her father works for the French and then the government of the Republic of Vietnam, her sister was with the Viet Minh

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis Essay

    862 Words  | 2 Pages

    The windows are barred, symbolizing the restrictive nature of the narrator’s mental condition. She is imprisoned within her mind. Her room was once a nursery, symbolizing that she is helpless and dependent on her husband’s care, similar to how a parent is reliant on the care of it’s parents, “… for the windows are barred for little children,” (Gilman 2). The narrator is not only trapped by her own mind and mental condition, but her husband’s wishes and expectations as well. The most significant symbol within the story is the yellow wallpaper. Initially, the narrator only views the wallpaper as something unpleasant, but over time she becomes fascinated with it’s formless pattern and tries to figure out how it’s organized. She discovers a sub-pattern within in it in which she distinguishes as a barred change with the heads of women that have attempted to escape the wallpaper like the woman she has been “seeing” moving within the wallpaper, “And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern - it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads” (Gilman 8). The yellow wallpaper is symbolic of a women’s place in society within the nineteenth century. It was not commonplace, or deemed acceptable, for women to be financially independent and/or engage in intellectual activity. The wallpaper is symbolic of those economic, intellectual, and social restrictions women were held to, as well as the domestic lives they were expected to lead. The narrator is so restricted by these social norms that her proper name is never given within the story, her only identity is “John’s wife”. At the climax of the story, the narrator identifies completely with the woman in the wallpaper and believes that by tearing the wallpaper, both she and the woman would be freed of their domestic prisons, “…there are so many of those

    Read More

  • Book Analysis Of Last Child In The Woods

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book I chose to read is called, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by: Richard Louv. I chose this book for a few different reasons. One reason I chose this book was because I’ m highly interested in the whole concept of the book and feel very passionate about its reasoning. I also thought it would be a great read to guide me towards a topic for my main project at the end of the Lemelson program. On the plus side, I “read” this book through audible, which enabled me to listed to the book on my drive to and from work everyday. I commonly do this because of my forty-five minute commute from Truckee to Spanish Springs.

    Read More

  • The House Of The Seven Gables Analysis

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    The House of the Seven Gables written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel that engages the reader in an intricate love story that blends history and a fanciful ancestry. Hawthorne stays true to the Romantic era’s convections through his detailed development of the plot. Through his writing, the reader can capture the emotions, morality and motives of each character. Although Hawthorne writes in the romantic style, he does not fail to go against the social norms with the plot. He defines the normal roles of women and he emphasizes the role of wealth in society. Furthermore he asserts his opinions on issues that were prevent in that time, such as, racism, slave emancipation and Jim Crow. The story was not created to just provide a creative love

    Read More

  • The House Behind the Cedars by Charles W. Chesnutt

    991 Words  | 2 Pages

    Neither white nor black people want to be poor, hungry, or unfair judgment put on them. However, being born with the blood of their parents, they have to live under different circumstances. Their lives are comfortable or struggled that depends on the kind of blood their parents give them. Especially, the mulattos who have mixed blood of white and black have more difficulties in life because of having multiple cultures. Indeed, the novel “the House Behind the Cedars” of Charles W. Chesnutt main message about race relation is that mulattos struggle dramatically in racial society of white, black, and mulatto their own kind people.

    Read More

  • Alienation into Insanity in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Yellow Wallpaper and William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    This male dominance led the narrator from “The Yellow Wallpaper” into loneliness and eventually to a place of no return. The alienation is shown in terms of the setting, "The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. " The house that the couple rented for three months represents the woman’s physical imprisonment and symbolizes her isolation. Moreover, the nursery that John recommends his wife to live in includes many confining elements.

    Read More

  • Why Do Monsters Eat Whiny Children

    508 Words  | 2 Pages

    Also, the book including borders on each page emphasizes how the children are trapped and creates a separation between the two versions of white. The color white within the borders creates isolation and emptiness while the property of calmness and comfort is implied outside the

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: A Tree Grows In Brooklyn By Betty Smith

    505 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith is a both significant and interesting novel for its fascinating story of Francie Nolan’s physical and emotional growth. To begin, young Francie lets the reader understand that even through poverty, it is important to enjoy the little things in life, to value life itself even when it is evidently polluted by greed. Secondly, as Francie grows up, her fall from innocence during her conflicts in life causes her not to be jaded with the world but to become stronger. Growing up is filled with both joy and acrimony, and Francie Nolan’s life is a great example of how a young woman should grow up to be.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper and The Cask Of Amontillado

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...he wall, he thinks about his rejected opportunities and his unbearable regret. As he sobers with terror, the final blow will come from the realization that his life is ending in his catacombs dying with his finest wine. The catacombs, in which he dies, set the theme, and relate well with the story. Without the yellow wallpaper in the short story, the significance of the wallpaper would not mater, nor would it set the theme or plot. At night the wallpaper becomes bars, and the wallpaper lets her see herself as a women and her desire to free herself. She needs to free herself from the difficulties of her husband, and from her sickness. The settings in both, set up the elements of the stories and ads to the effect in both of the short stories.

    Read More

  • Comparing Jane Eyre and Yellow Wallpaper

    1645 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is a similar treatment of space in the two works, with the larger, upstairs rooms at the summer lodging and at Thornfield Hall being associated with insanity and the smaller rooms below being safer and saner. Gilman's narrator expresses an early desire to move downstairs to a smaller, saner room, but her wish is ignored. Large rooms become haunted rooms in both stories as typified by the room with the yellow wallpaper, the Red Room, and the third floor room beyond which Bertha is confined.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Delusion In The Yellow Wallpaper

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    The house is described as, “The most beautiful place! It is quite alone, standing well back from the road, quite three miles from the village. It makes me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges and walls and gates that lock, and lots of separate little houses for the gardeners and people” (251). However, Jane’s delusion is just that, a delusion encrypted by her mind to have her think she is living in quiet luxury. She goes on to talk about how the bed is nailed down to the floor, the walls are covered in scratches, the windows are barred, and there are rings in the walls. Obviously, Jane, despite being told by her husband that she is fine, is slowly beginning to lose sight of reality. The reader should know at this point that this “mansion” is nothing short of an insane asylum John has taken Jane to so she can rest and calm her troubles. But Jane and John’s troubles are only beginning when she is forced to sit in solitude with the awful yellow

    Read More

  • Poe's Fall of The House of Usher - The House and its Inhabitants

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    To of the most striking descriptions used to portray the house are those of the windows and the fissure.  He describes the windows as “vacant [and] eye-like.”  With this description the narrator effectively anthropomorphizes the house.  Thus he almost gives the status of character to the house.  The other outstanding description is that of the fissure.  It is described as “a barely perceptible fissure, which [extends] from the roof of the building in front, [making] its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it [becomes] lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.”   It is interesting to note that the narrator spends so much time describing a feature that he describes as barely perceptible.

    Read More

More about House Of Leaves Sparknotes

Open Document