Summary
Summary Dream house -Craig Higginson
- Course
- English literature
- Institution
- Curro Private School (Curro)
Grade 12 IEB set reader the Dream House, page for page break down with useful quotes to put into essays.
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Pages Detail8 “There is no justice in this- nor in anything else”
10 “has been reduced to a war zone in which men wander about in the mist like wounded
soldiers.” This is an indication of landscape in transition and shows that there is difficultly in
this- south Africans where in search of equality and now that they have it they just wonder
about not knowing what to do but be hurt by the past.
As Bheki drives along the road, the road becomes a metaphor for who is to blame. The builders
are metaphorical symbols of the apartheid and the current government inflicting change.
14 The link between Queen Elizabeth shows the change in politics as international ties faded and
only KZN is still a British colony (the roses on page 18 adds to this idea).
16 “she fell in love with him because he was everything Richard was not.” Patricia and Richard
never actually loved each other, and Patricia filled her romantic void with John Ford- how she
was satisfied by him because he never left his wife and she never left her husband.
18 “In my experience, backwards glances only creek the neck.”- opening and digging up history-
this indicates the past is not worth looking back upon for Patricia because it will cause her pain
and discomfort.
22 “The problem of what to do with the past would have to carry on the future”- history will
continue to be carried into the future unless you are willing to accept and forgive what
happened
23 A possible dream house is depicted for Beauty in the painting above her bed,” English country
winding towards a village church. There are sheep filling the road and a dog herding them
outwards, its tail a question mark.” The dog is a symbol of control as a dog led to the death of
Grace causing the change in Looksmart and Patricia. The tail indicates the mystery of the
situation still lurks in the farm.
25 “Every birth and death has been absorbed at the same moment, under much the same
circumstances.” Bheki and Beauty are just observers and never play a significant role in what
happens, the quotation suggests that nothing on the farm holds value in it.
26 “uMesis always comes away from him with that empty lost look on her face, like one over-
burdened with bad news.” John ford is her “break” from the life she lives with Richard.
27 Patricia lives in her mind which is separate from the farm, Patricia and Richard get married on
an impulse.
“Her grave is marked by a simple stone, with only her name- Rachel- and a single date marked
on it: the date of her birth and death.”- Richard wanted to dig up Rachel- burial and digging up.
29 Patricia admits having cheated on Richard and he accepts it and acts like nothing happened.
There was never love in their relationship.
31 “she has kept the house exactly as her father left it.” Patricia never changes the house because
in her mind it’s not her home, this gives evidence that there is not substance in her marriage to
Richard, “She said that if the house ever gave Richard Bronchitis now and again it was his
problem. The only time Patricia was loved was when her and her father were together and
thus she still keeps a piece of him. -the concept of home- except this isn’t her nor Richard’s
“home”.
33 Looksmart arrives
34 ‘’he is an intruder in his own land, condemned to arriving at places where he will never quite
belong.” Looksmart sees the country under the transition and doesn’t feel that he is excepted
into it yet.
“but now the driveway has been rubbed out beyond recognition.” – It is as if Looksmart’s past
has been rubbed away when he arrives to the farm it is in a mess much like the state of South
Africa.
“something inside the engine whirrs on for a while-but when it stops the silence he knows so
, well returns to him in all its fullness and sweetness. He once again experiences a surge of grief,
coming like nausea, involuntary and from deep within his gut.” Looksmart is driven by hate -
because of the grief he feels- for Patricia and apartheid are influential factors for him to
achieve greatness: hence the engine running
36 “did he come here because of the Wileys or because of Grace? He’s spent almost half his life
trying to get as far away from grace as possible.”
“Even in death she is still more powerful than he will ever be”
“And with the prospect of her comes the luxury of his old hate, which starts to filter back into
his blood, thick and fragrant.”
He doesn’t know if he has hatred left in him because his daughters have softened him.
37-39 The emptiness of life is shown as Patricia opens the camera that has been left unused for
decades. Life had not continued for the Wileys since the death and birth of Racheal, and
therefore there was no life to capture.
44 “Is this something the old bitch has achieved?...With her anything is possible: there is no end
to her malice.”- the love and hate between Richard and Patricia.
45 The landscape Richard travels through is a path he thought he know but the landscape has
changed- this becomes a metaphor of South Africa as things were thought to be one way are
another and what was there was forgotten, nothing in the landscape is complete as everything
is going through a transition.
47 “He finds himself cheered by the prospect of the old man’s death.” – the hate relationship with
Looksmart and Richard, and indication of black vs white.
48 “she was always on the podgy side, but now and again under the gaze of her father, she also
appeared beautiful. “home for Patricia was with her father, the love only man who truly loved
Patricia was her father.
49 “she is always looking for the joke, Patricia, the thing to laugh at, the thing to steer her gaze
away from the unbearable present.”- Patricia does not have the life she imagined for herself.
She refuses to see the truth for what it actually is because the truth of the present hurts her
too much to face.
“Was that not revenge enough?”- the hate Looksmart feels toward Patricia makes him want to
gain a revenge from and make her feel powerless.
50 “all he is to her at that moment is a darker place in the darkness, dense with possibility.” –
Looksmart inflicts darkness onto Patricia’s life.
The suit Looksmart wears indicates the change in status a black person would have in South
Africa.
53 “he came here having already decided to be rude, yet it also seems that he hasn’t yet found his
voice for it, or his theme.”- The hate that drives Looksmart is shown yet in front of Patricia she
cannot hate her because he needs her approval.
54 “he seems already to have turned against her, long before he even entered the room.”
56-57 A gap between how Looksmart and Patricia view the past, Looksmart has no emotion to
entertain Patricia, yet she see how he feels but does not know how to react. -resentment
58 “Don’t you mean always wanting to please you?”- Looksmart was always in search of Patricia’s
approval.
A Change occurred in Looksmart during the time he was away from the farm and he became a
person who was unfamiliar to Patricia and therefore Patricia cannot see into what Looksmart is
feeling towards her and she does not want to break the relationship she has with him. The
change that occurred in Looksmart was due to the change (event) at the farm that lead to him
leaving the farm.
60 The Symbolise of the Bloodwoods is shown, there is no certainty in what is beyond the
bloodwoods. The darkness indicates that there is good in the woods however it will just be lost
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