House of Leaves is an unorthodox amalgam of overlapping stories that are designed as puzzles for the reader to decipher and solve. Within Chapter VI, the epigraph that precedes the rather brief description of the pets in the Navidson House provides hidden depth and meaning to the physical and mental boundaries that the human must face. Ernest Becker states, “[Animals] lack a symbolic identity and the self-consciousness that goes with it. They merely act and move reflexively as they are driven by their instincts [...] They live in a world without time, pulsating, as it were, in a state of dumb being . . . The knowledge of death is reflective and conceptual, and animals are spared it” (74). To further understand Ernest Becker, the reader should …show more content…
view his belief of death stated in his own book, The Denial of Death. He believes that the personality of a human is formed by the avoidance of death and that the inevitability of death controls how we function in society. This seems to resonate with Johnny Truant’s self-identity crisis, which is supported by his constant ramblings about the truth behind the Navidson Record and his unsure purpose behind it.
In contrast, animals are simply unaffected and unbound to the Navidson’s ominous hallway, suggesting that the man made constructs are too complex for their knowledge, or lack thereof. Similarly, a House of Leaves blog on Wordpress.com postulates, “A cat nor dog hasn’t the capacity to measure [...] area, volume, and conflicting dimensions”. The house, in this case, symbolizes the constant self-searching that humans do and their constant fear of the unknown. Through their instinctual and primal motives, one can infer that the human constructs of death and time that instill an impending fear into both Johnny and Navidson, cannot touch the simple-mindedness that both the cat and the dog have. The physical structure of the house seems to let them roam freely into the backyard as it should, reinforcing the idea that the mental structure of a human coincides with the physical structure of the house. Thus, Johnny Truant, who is constantly soul-searching and questioning his own self- identity, seems to have grown jealous of the simple-mindedness and unbound mind of the …show more content…
animals. Within an anonymous Blogspot post, the author exclaims that Johnny’s madness and havoc filled thoughts are starkly contrasted to those of the animals; thus emphasizing his own jealousy.
He states, “Truant, for nearly two full pages, rambles without stopping, about Zampano’s cats, the Pekinese that he can’t discuss, the man with the beard and “hands harder than horn” [...] He, unlike animals, is constantly thinking about his past”. This coincides with the idea that Johnny is green with envy for the lack of boundaries that the dog and the cat have. Consequently, the hallway seems to have brought out an animalistic feature to those who encounter it, such as Johnny’s madness or Navidson’s burning curiosity. He continuously references Zampano and his closeness to cats and finds a sort of solace and tranquility when mentioning them. Although he is slowly deteriorating and becoming madder, he finds that the unburdened mind of an animal is relaxing. Referring back to the epigraph, the “symbolic identity and self-consciousness” is what is demanded of in the hallway, as those who do not possess any of these cannot go through it. The simplistic nature of the dog chasing the cat re-establishes the reason why Johnny’s envy is so scintillating, as he continues to mumble and mutter about the burdening and depressing matters that the Navidson Record has brought upon him. The imminent doom that seems to be physically chasing Johnny in his own life is a symbolic statement on how he is being
consumed by the daunting human constraints of time and death.
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
Ray Bradbury uses juxtaposition by contrasting this imaginary world that is set in the twenty-first century to very ordinary actions. Although the house is automated and again, empty, the kitchen is making the ideal breakfast for a family of four, and singing basic nursery rhymes such as “Rain, rain, go away...”. These humanlike events do not compare to the unoccupied house. The description of the house becomes more animalistic and almost oxymoronic when the, “rooms were acrawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal.” The almost constant cleaning of the tiny robot mice suggest that the previous household was very orderly and precise. Through Bradbury’s description of the outside of the house and its surroundings he indirectly tells the reader about the events that may have occurred. A burnt “silhouette” of the family imprinted on the west wall of the house is the only thing left of them. In the image each person is doing something picking flowers, moving the lawn, playing with a ball. This was a family having a good time, but little did they know the catastrophe they were about to experience would end their
Personifying the house allows the reader to view the world in the house’s perspective, establishing the petrification of the world. The fact that the house had no idea that the family perished, expresses that technology will do what it is programmed to do, but it does not have emotions, so it would be unaware of our absence. Bradbury compels the reader to feel despair, since he displays that the only living creature, the dog, was lonely and died. The reader can infer that the dog must have suffered for a long time, and feel compassion for what it must have been through, because “ The dog, once huge and fleshy, but now gone to bone and covered with sores ” (Bradbury). The most heartbreaking scene with the dog was when it died, for the reason that it was treated like trash, “ The dog frothed at the mouth, lying at the door, sniffing, its eyes turned to fire...Two o'clock, sang a voice. Delicately sensing decay at last, the regiments of mice hummed out as softly as blown gray leaves in an electrical
While the man is thinking about the wolf and the impact it had on its surroundings, he knows that many people would be afraid of the it. Realizing that something can be both “terrible and of great beauty,” the man's sense of awe is heightened. While laying under the moonlight, the man thinks about the wolf both figuratively and literally running through the dew on the grass and how there would be a “rich matrix of creatures [that had] passed in the night before her.” Figuratively, this represents the wolf running into heaven. However, the man imagining the wolf literally running and the beauty of her free movements across the “grassy swale” creates a sense of awe that he has for the wolf. A wolf running towards someone would be terrifying, but a wolf running with freedom is magnificently beautiful. After imagining this, the man knows that even though wolves can be terrifying, “the world cannot lose” their sense of beauty and
The rooms where the action of a story takes place are also very important. Some the rooms used in the book are bedrooms, the dining room, the parlor, and the enclosed garden patio. The first room we see inside of this old house is the garden patio. This room is interesting because the smell from the patio is always associated with the title character. Felipe looks for her in this garden; he smells the patio plants in her hair. Symbolically, the garden can be associated with the mind, with the unconscious, or it may give you clues to your own inner state. The plants, flowers, and fruit found in the garden may also enhance t...
Junior sometimes had to go to bed hungry, but that wasn’t the worst thing about being in poverty. He made a diary entry stating, “Poverty= empty refrigerator+empty stomach. And sure sometimes my family misses a meal…and hey, in a weird way, being hungry makes food taste better (8).” This really puts the diary reader in his shoes about how many times he had to go without food and starve while trying to go to sleep, simply because his family couldn’t afford it. But to Junior, being hungry wasn’t necessarily that bad. What he felt was the worst thing about his poverty was that there was no money to save his beloved animal Oscar. Oscar became really ill and Junior wanted to take the animal to the doctor, but the family couldn’t afford it. When it came down to it, his father had to put the dog out of misery, and decided to shoot him. Visualizing someone having to shoot your best animal friend is heart wrenching. Most people have been in Juniors shoes where they have a sick animal, however they never imagine having to shoot it. This comparison of being hungry and losing an animal, shows Junior’s great strength at a young age about going through poverty, and sometimes even hope...
Marilynne Robinson gives voice to a realm of consciousness beyond the bounds of reason in her novel Housekeeping. Possibly concealed by the melancholy but gently methodical tone, boundaries and limits of perception are constantly redefined, rediscovered, and reevaluated. Ruth, as the narrator, leads the reader through the sorrowful events and the mundane details of her childhood and adolescence. She attempts to reconcile her experiences, fragmented and unified, past, present, and future, in order to better understand or substantiate the transient life she leads with her aunt Sylvie. Rather than the wooden structure built by Edmund Foster, the house Ruth eventually comes to inhabit with Sylvie and learn to "keep" is metaphoric. "...it seemed something I had lost might be found in Sylvie's house" (124). The very act of housekeeping invites a radical revision of fundamental concepts like time, memory, and meaning.
Dark romantic literature has delved into the pits of man’s soul, through the use of psychology, to showcase a new take on the horror one can experience. It is this literature that touches all who reads it with a cold hand through exploiting a common fear shared by most. In Edgar Allen Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” Poe creates an ominous and eerie set of circumstances that incites pure fear into the narrator through his use of the Gothic Elements and Psychology to exploit the narrator’s fear of insanity to create the single effect of fear.
The mind is a complicated thing. Not many stories are able to portray this in such an interesting manner as in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". The haunting story of a man and his sister, living in the old family mansion. But as all should know, much symbolism can be found in most of Poe's works. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is no exception.
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, sets a tone that is dark, gloomy, and threatening. His inclusion of highly descriptive words and various forms of figurative language enhance the story’s evil nature, giving the house and its inhabitants eerie and “supernatural” qualities. Poe’s effective use of personification, symbolism, foreshadowing, and doubling create a morbid tale leading to, and ultimately causing, the fall of (the house of) Usher.
Furthermore, is a summarization of the main points in “The Black Cat.” “The Black Cat” is about a man who always loved animals since he was little, but as he aged he started drinking. He then tortured his favorite pet cat, Pluto after he was getting annoyed with his presence. He goes as far as gouging out its eye before he hangs it in an old tree. Later on, his house burnt down and the outline of the cat was left on the only standing wall left by the fire. After he and his wife get a new home, they soon found a new cat that looked just like the old one except it had white around its neck. The narrator starts to believe that the cat is mocking him, so one day he tries to kill the cat but his wife interferes, and he ki...
The story begins as the boy describes his neighborhood. Immediately feelings of isolation and hopelessness begin to set in. The street that the boy lives on is a dead end, right from the beginning he is trapped. In addition, he feels ignored by the houses on his street. Their brown imperturbable faces make him feel excluded from the decent lives within them. The street becomes a representation of the boy’s self, uninhabited and detached, with the houses personified, and arguably more alive than the residents (Gray). Every detail of his neighborhood seems designed to inflict him with the feeling of isolation. The boy's house, like the street he lives on, is filled with decay. It is suffocating and “musty from being long enclosed.” It is difficult for him to establish any sort of connection to it. Even the history of the house feels unkind. The house's previous tenant, a priest, had died while living there. He “left all his money to institutions and the furniture of the house to his sister (Norton Anthology 2236).” It was as if he was trying to insure the boy's boredom and solitude. The only thing of interest that the boy can find is a bicycle pump, which is rusty and rendered unfit to play with. Even the “wild” garden is gloomy and desolate, containing but a lone apple tree and a few straggling bushes. It is hardly the sort of yard that a young boy would want. Like most boys, he has no voice in choosing where he lives, yet his surroundings have a powerful effect on him.
Similarly, the furniture in the house is as sullen as the house itself. What little furniture is in the house is beaten-up; this is a symbol of the dark setting. The oak bed is the most important p...
What comes to mind when one thinks of the word ‘puppy’? It is probable describe a puppy as a lovable, adorable, and cuddly companion. However, one might also identify the animal as a menace and a liability or even as a delicious source of food. Why does this single word hold so many meanings? One’s past experiences and biases influences these conflicting views and attitudes. For instance, an individual’s fond view of puppies may exist because they were raised with puppies and consequently grew affectionate toward the animals. On the contrary, if another individual has not bonded with puppies as pets, then they will share the latter point of view. In the short story “Puppy” by George Saunders, the multiple characters view single events and objects with contrasting perceptions. Therefore, instead of painting a precise picture of the characters and the plot, the story expresses several views regarding the morals of the characters, the motivations of their actions, and the meaning of the events that take place. In “Puppy”, George Saunders explores the theory that perception is not an elementary, universal definition of an object or idea, but a complex interpretation that is influenced by one’s unique and varying past experiences and opinions. The complexity of perception is evident in one the story’s narrator’s, Marie’s, vantage point.
Animal asserts his position as the novel’s narrator by addressing his readership as Eyes, drawing from Jarnalis’s instructions on how to tell his story. Jarnalis told him to envision a presence, an undefined person who will soon come to feel like a friend he can be honest with and tell them his story. Animal turns the metaphor around: he says the eyes became real and started haunting him until from the undefined crowd emerged a single pair of them, Eyes, the reader themselves. The reader soon realizes they will not be a passive consumer of the story nor an omniscient presence observing the developments from the bird’s-eye’s view, but rather eyes fixed on Animal, unable to loo...