Plot

The Dream House is a memoir written by Carmen Maria Machado, an account of a relationship
that she was once in.

This isn’t a blatant horror story. Its a story of love and abuse and the fine line there is between
the two. The story switches between accounts from her relationship. Accounts from her
childhood. As well as information about abuse, specifically domestic abuse.

Its not written as a traditional book with chapters but rather similar to a diary. Each section is
fairly short and every name begins as Dream House as ________. Rather than writing her
accounts in first person using “I” she writes “You.”

Refers to abuser as “The Person in the Dream House”

Why do you think it is called dream house - an illusion in the beginning

Themes
Relationships: The lengths we go, and the things we endure with in relationships in the name of
“love”, The people closest to you have the power to hurt you the most

Abuse: Domestic abuse, abuse beyond physical abuse (verbal, emotional, etc.), how often we
lie to ourselves, how conscious we believe we are v.s the reality of our situations, the
commonality of domestic abuse within our world today,
(Girl in Dreamhouse screams, bipolar, emotionally crippling)

Isolation: as a form of abuse

The government system: failure to see and have solutions to domestic abuse, the need for
“evidence” in order to do anything

Quotes
“And in the same way the dandelion’s destruction tells us about ourselves, so does our own
destruction: our bodies are ecosystems, and they shed and replace and repair until we die” pg.
13

“There is a Quinchua riddle: El que me nombra, me rompe. Whatever names me, breaks me.
The solution, of course, is “silence.” But the truth is, anyone who knows your name can break
you in two” pg. 37

“On that night, the gun is set upon the mantlepiece. The metaphorical gun, of course. If there
were a literal gun, you’d probably be dead” pg. 125
“After all, in Gaslight, Gregory’s only actual crimes were murdering Puala’s aunt and the
attempted theft of her property. The core of the film’s horror is its relentless domestic abuse, but
that abuse is emotional and psychological and thus completely outside of the law” pg. 139

“One day, a bird slammed into my studio window...I learned: they never see the glass coming,
They only see the reflection of the sky” pg.158

“You can be hurt by people who look just like you...the world is full of hurt people who hurt
people” pg.232