Part 1 ‘‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’’ begins with one woman who lives in a city visiting her younger sister in the country. The elder sister is married to a successful tradesman, while the younger sister is married to a peasant in the village. The elder sister boasts about the advantages of living…
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House Taken Over – Analysis
Julio Cortazar’s ‘‘House Taken Over’’ is a brief but carefully constructed tale. It is particularly noteworthy for what it does and does not reveal. The narrator’s attention to mundane detail is astounding, particularly when seen as a contrast to the details that remain unaddressed. This lack of seemingly important description lends the story an ambiguity…
House Taken Over – Setting – Magical Realism
Juan Peron Argentine dictator and subsequent president Juan Peron came into power at the time that Cort´zar began his writing career. Furthermore, the 1940s were the beginning of a tumultuous and historic period in Argentine politics and economy. This same tumult may have been partially responsible for Cortazar’s decision to live abroad. To a certain…
House Taken Over – Literary Devices
Unreliable First-Person Narrator The unnamed first-person narrator in this story is characterized not by what he does but by what he says, thinks, and feels. The reader experiences all of the events in the story through this lens. The reader understands Irene and her actions only through her brother’s opinions. While this creates a sense…
House Taken Over – Themes
Social Class ‘‘House Taken Over’’ paints a stark picture of the life of the Argentine upper class. Irene and her brother have inherited a large house and gather income from the farms that they own. All of this means that neither has to work. They have enough income to enjoy a leisurely and well-off lifestyle….
House Taken Over – Characters
The House In a sense, the house itself is an integral character in ‘‘House Taken Over.’’ It rules over the siblings’ lives. It is blamed for their respective spinsterhood and bachelorhood. They spend half of their time cleaning and maintaining the house. The house is also a family heirloom. It symbolically connects the siblings to…
House Taken Over – Summary
The story begins with the statement, ‘‘We liked the house.’’ It is not yet apparent who is represented by ‘‘we.’’ The unnamed narrator then states that the house is large and ancient; it preserves the memory of their youth and of the family’s past generations. In the next paragraph, the narrator explains that he and…
The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind – Analysis
There can be few readers of ‘‘The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind,’’ especially those who note the date of the story’s first publication, who have not viewed it an allegory of the cold war, with the deadly rivalry between the cities regarding the shape of their walls being a metaphorical presentation of the nuclear arms…
The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind – Setting
The Cold War Even before World War II ended in 1945, the world divided into two power blocs, East and West. The United States and its Western European allies believed that the communist Soviet Union was an aggressive power that would seek to expand its influence throughout the globe. In 1946, George Kennan, who was…
The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind – Allegory – Moral Lesson – Symbolism
Allegory The story may be interpreted as a political allegory. An allegory is a narrative in which characters, objects, or events represent something independent of the actual story told. As William Flint Thrall and Addison Hibbard state in A Handbook to Literature, ‘‘Allegory attempts to evoke a dual interest, one in the events, characters, and…