The Dream House- Craig Higginson
Some themes of The Dream House
The houses of The Dream House
The title: The Dwaleni farmhouse is a house of dreams and memories and illusions
rather than the estate agent’s cliché of an idyllic rural dwelling.
The farmhouse is hardly a 'dream house'. One of the first European houses to be
built in the area, 'inside it had always been as dark and dank as any cave.'
The Durban house is Patricia’s dream house-her true home to which she longs to
return and spend her days gazing at the harbor view.
In Part 4, she imagines Looksmart and his family visiting her in Durban. The girls
playing with her Victorian dollhouse-a post-racial dreamhouse but she dismisses
this image quickly.
In Part 5 Patricia dreams of the Durban house being attacked by earthmovers.
Beauty dreams of 'a house of her own' with an extra bedroom for guests, mealies, a
goat and a view of the Drakensberg.
Houses
Looksmart observes that very little has changed in South Africa 'People like her are
still sitting in their houses. People like him are still looking in.' The farmhouse is a
symbol of the persistence of the past.
Richard wandering lost in one of the incomplete new houses tells Beauty that, 'I
want to go home'. Ironically Patricia decides that he will be put in a 'home' in
Durban.
The farm house was a dream house for the young Looksmart, 'the very picture of
luxury' but now he sees it for what it was, 'place with no more life in it.'
As they leave Dwaleni the weaverbirds are building their nests-a positive image.
John Ford writes that their time together was a 'place of truth' but Patricia realizes
that their relationship was one of the many untruths in her life.
Beauty tells Patricia at the end that she never left because, '-this is where I live.'
The new houses
Initially Looksmart wanted to punish Patricia by obliterating her farm but he is
surprised that she welcomes his plans.
Ironically he is not involved in a righteous reclaiming of ancestral land from the
colonisers but in the establishment of a gated community that will reproduce and
multiply privilege and exclusion.
Patricia hopes that the farmhouse will be knocked down 'brick by brick' but he plans
to replicate across the valley as it has 'a vernacular value all of its own'.
Instead of one house of dark dreams, there will be a dozen reproducing the past but
altering it a little. The new houses will be like a bad dream endlessly embodying
inequality.
The past cannot be erased nor can one choose what should be kept and what
destroyed. The best of the farm-the birds and wetlands will disappear as will the hut
in which Looksmart was born.
, Transformation always builds on the past-the past and future work together in
unexpected ways.
The power of language (and silence)
In The Dream House language can:
Summon and command: 'Beau-ty!'
Comfort and provide a sense of home: Beauty speaks isiZulu when she is alone with
Richard and Bheki.
Construct one’s identity
Define and redefine relationships
Silence others
Name
Summon up emotions and the past
Dehumanise
The power of language
Language can:
Hide the truth
Appease and please
Wound
Create distance and status
Bridge the past and present
Create a bearable narrative
The power of language
Language can:
Carry truth but is sometimes more powerful than truth.
Language has the power to heal which is ultimately more important than truth which
probably doesn’t even exist. The absence of truth can be liberating in contrast to the
truth which is defined by those who have the power to define it.
'The novel problematises the whole notion of truth, and privileges narrative and language
over objectivity, which is shown to be always elusive.'
The power of silence
Richard felt comfortable in the dairy because, 'No one ever talks to him there.'
Beauty’s silence often belies her power. Looksmart asks her, 'Is that all you have to
say?' and assumes that she is 'intimidated' by his suit but, 'Had either of them looked
at her now, they might have seen the knowledge behind her eyes burning like a
flame..' She knows all.
When Looksmart talks to Bheki he reminds himself that, 'Power lies with those who
withhold their information from others. If you give yourself away, you no longer own
yourself.'
Richard will not tell Patricia what he did to Grace. 'There’s nothing more to say about
it.'
Speaking about the unborn child (probably). 'There was no name,' he adds. 'No name
for it.'
Beauty tells Patricia, 'We do not talk of Grace.'
Some themes of The Dream House
The houses of The Dream House
The title: The Dwaleni farmhouse is a house of dreams and memories and illusions
rather than the estate agent’s cliché of an idyllic rural dwelling.
The farmhouse is hardly a 'dream house'. One of the first European houses to be
built in the area, 'inside it had always been as dark and dank as any cave.'
The Durban house is Patricia’s dream house-her true home to which she longs to
return and spend her days gazing at the harbor view.
In Part 4, she imagines Looksmart and his family visiting her in Durban. The girls
playing with her Victorian dollhouse-a post-racial dreamhouse but she dismisses
this image quickly.
In Part 5 Patricia dreams of the Durban house being attacked by earthmovers.
Beauty dreams of 'a house of her own' with an extra bedroom for guests, mealies, a
goat and a view of the Drakensberg.
Houses
Looksmart observes that very little has changed in South Africa 'People like her are
still sitting in their houses. People like him are still looking in.' The farmhouse is a
symbol of the persistence of the past.
Richard wandering lost in one of the incomplete new houses tells Beauty that, 'I
want to go home'. Ironically Patricia decides that he will be put in a 'home' in
Durban.
The farm house was a dream house for the young Looksmart, 'the very picture of
luxury' but now he sees it for what it was, 'place with no more life in it.'
As they leave Dwaleni the weaverbirds are building their nests-a positive image.
John Ford writes that their time together was a 'place of truth' but Patricia realizes
that their relationship was one of the many untruths in her life.
Beauty tells Patricia at the end that she never left because, '-this is where I live.'
The new houses
Initially Looksmart wanted to punish Patricia by obliterating her farm but he is
surprised that she welcomes his plans.
Ironically he is not involved in a righteous reclaiming of ancestral land from the
colonisers but in the establishment of a gated community that will reproduce and
multiply privilege and exclusion.
Patricia hopes that the farmhouse will be knocked down 'brick by brick' but he plans
to replicate across the valley as it has 'a vernacular value all of its own'.
Instead of one house of dark dreams, there will be a dozen reproducing the past but
altering it a little. The new houses will be like a bad dream endlessly embodying
inequality.
The past cannot be erased nor can one choose what should be kept and what
destroyed. The best of the farm-the birds and wetlands will disappear as will the hut
in which Looksmart was born.
, Transformation always builds on the past-the past and future work together in
unexpected ways.
The power of language (and silence)
In The Dream House language can:
Summon and command: 'Beau-ty!'
Comfort and provide a sense of home: Beauty speaks isiZulu when she is alone with
Richard and Bheki.
Construct one’s identity
Define and redefine relationships
Silence others
Name
Summon up emotions and the past
Dehumanise
The power of language
Language can:
Hide the truth
Appease and please
Wound
Create distance and status
Bridge the past and present
Create a bearable narrative
The power of language
Language can:
Carry truth but is sometimes more powerful than truth.
Language has the power to heal which is ultimately more important than truth which
probably doesn’t even exist. The absence of truth can be liberating in contrast to the
truth which is defined by those who have the power to define it.
'The novel problematises the whole notion of truth, and privileges narrative and language
over objectivity, which is shown to be always elusive.'
The power of silence
Richard felt comfortable in the dairy because, 'No one ever talks to him there.'
Beauty’s silence often belies her power. Looksmart asks her, 'Is that all you have to
say?' and assumes that she is 'intimidated' by his suit but, 'Had either of them looked
at her now, they might have seen the knowledge behind her eyes burning like a
flame..' She knows all.
When Looksmart talks to Bheki he reminds himself that, 'Power lies with those who
withhold their information from others. If you give yourself away, you no longer own
yourself.'
Richard will not tell Patricia what he did to Grace. 'There’s nothing more to say about
it.'
Speaking about the unborn child (probably). 'There was no name,' he adds. 'No name
for it.'
Beauty tells Patricia, 'We do not talk of Grace.'
