House Taken Over Theme

Human emotions such as guilt and fear can affect a person’s mind so deeply that it can cause a complete change in their behavioral aspect. A person’s conscience is something that is not really in their control. However, people still try to change that fact by overthinking, not committing sins and doing good deeds so they don’t end up having a guilty conscience. Julio Cortazar an Argentinian novelist famous for his ability to merge realism with imagination does a great job in bringing out a very important topic about human psychological behavior caused due to their consciences in “House Taken Over”. In this short story, it is seen that the protagonist and his sister Irene are suffering from a guilty conscience which is forcing them …show more content…
The siblings being completely isolated from society kept hearing noises from inside the house as the protagonist stated “the sound came through muted an indistinct, a chair being knocked over onto the carpet or the muffled buzzing of a conversation” (691). This quote shows that they are affected psychologically because they are not in contact with their neighbors or anyone so therefore, the noises were actually their own conscience that they heard all the time because it was coming from inside their minds. The siblings were losing their mind they were suffering so badly that they were getting used to the idea of living without acknowledging the sounds. As stated by the protagonist “little by little we stopped thinking. You can live without thinking” (692). This quote suggests that by suppressing their inner voice by keeping themselves busy and tuning out their conscience, they were able to keep living in that house. Nevertheless, it didn’t seem to work as seen that siblings kept having …show more content…
The siblings mention hearing multiple conversations in the house this could be a sign of having an inner battle with oneself over the stressor subject. The siblings can’t seem to differentiate the sounds because it is coming from their mind. It is a very unlikely fact that somebody would enter their home and they wouldn’t be able control the action. This is because there actually is nobody in their house, it is just their own self thinking, trying to resonate the fact that they think they are guilty. Throughout the story the siblings seem to abandon a lot of things due to their fear. As stated by the protagonist after they abandon the house “did you have time to bring anything? I asked hopelessly. No Nothing” (692). This quote suggests that they had no hope of escaping their fear of their guilt. It is like running away from fate and it comes to haunt you back anyway. There is no going back but facing it still doesn’t seem like an option. By getting out of the house it was a way for the siblings to let go of that guilt. As stated by the protagonist “I slammed the grating and we stopped in the vestibule, now there was nothing to be heard” (692). This quote suggests that by leaving the house they are leaving their guiltiness behind even though it was tough to let go it stopped the noise of their guilty mind. Thus this proves that the guilty conscience of their mind drove them out of their