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House Taken Over. Julio Cortázar. By: Matt M, Matt D, Sarah F, Rebecca Y, & Nicole W.
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House Taken Over Julio Cortázar By: Matt M, Matt D, Sarah F, Rebecca Y, & Nicole W.
-Narrator: Name never mentioned, has a sister named Irene, in early forties, the woman he was going to propose to died before he had the chance, keen on house maintenance, likes European literature but has not been able to read any recently because world war two cut off communications with Argentina and Europe. -Irene: Narrator’s sister, in early forties, turned down two suitors, also keen on house maintenance, spends most spare time knitting clothing that gets worn. -Mysterious Noise: little information present, meaning further discussed in analysis portion of presentation Exposition – This short story takes place in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, somewhere between 1939 and 1945. The narrator and Irene live in a house they inherit from their great-grandparents, and are now the only ones living there. The narrator and Irene do not have to work for a living - they have enough money coming in from farms, and even extra money. SUMMARY
Rising Action - One night, the narrator and Irene hear strange noises (the antagonist), and in a calm manner, they agree that they should permanently move to a different section of the house. Not questioning or seeming phased by the event that just occurred, the narrator and Irene know they will never go back to that portion of the house, and resume their lives in the section they move to. Climax – Later on in the new portion of the house the narrator and Irene are living in, they hear the noises again, and in contrast to their first encounter with it, now are frantically trying to escape from it. Falling Action - They do manage to escape the mysterious noises, however they realize that they evacuated their home whilst fleeing from the force. The noises have now taken over their entire home. Defeated, the narrator and Irene realize now that they will not be able to ever go back into their home. They also see that they brought almost no monetary possessions on which they could thrive. Resolution – The narrator and Irene are left without home and money, and cannot return to their house because of the mysterious force that currently resides there. They even throw their house key into a gutter, claiming it would not be good for someone to try and rob the house with the mysterious noises in it. SUMMARY
House/setting: -Characters love the house before the noises because of the good memories it holds for them (1238) “We liked the house because, apart from its being old and spacious, (…) it kept the memories of great grand parents, our paternal grandfather, our parents, and the whole of childhood” Characters: -Middle-aged man and his sister, Irene -Have a very organized and normal life live on a schedule -Some critics say he makes the fantastic elements take control of the characters boring lives -They spend their days cleaning the house and knitting in the same fashion, never straying from the schedule What are the realistic elements?
Noises: “The sound came through muted and indistinct, a chair being knocked over onto the carpet or the muffled buzzing of a conversation” (1240). “Cortazar depicts a strange invasion of the house manifest to the reader and the characters only as an unidentifiable noise What are the magical elements?
-Make the reader curious -Display that the change in the house changes the people inside of it -They hold the reader in suspense What is the purpose/function of the magical elements?
-The noises make the two main characters become mentally unstable -The more time passes after the noises, the less they think -(1241) “…little by little we stopped thinking. You can live without thinking” -Forces the characters out of the house, first forced to only live in one part, then kicked out completely -Noises= no home/ loss of memories How are the magical elements treated/presented?
When they are forced to leave the one side of the house, characters: -first find it difficult (1240) “The first few days were painful, since we’d both left so many things in the part that had been taken over” -Then find that there are advantages (not having to clean the entire house = more time for Irene to knit -They begin to have trouble sleeping (1241) “…Irene talked in her sleep…in my sleep I flailed about enormously and shook the blankets off” -The noises made them feel unsafe, and they did not sleep contently What are the characters' reactions to the magical elements?
Relationship Between Real and Unreal Elements • Noise is an ordinary occurrence • Noise takes on more meaning as it restricts the brother and sister to a portion of their house and eventually drives them out of their home
Dreamlike Qualities • The noises lead to a state of being similar to death: “We were fine, and little by little we stopped thinking. You can live without thinking” (1241). • Their house “seals off the siblings from the outside world” since “their constant attention to the house over the years creates a solitary, somewhat hermetic existence” (Podalsky).
Figurative Language • Simile • “the hours slipped away watching her, her hands like silver sea-urchins” (1239). • “Stacked amid a great smell of camphor—it was like a shop” (1239). • Metaphor • “The sound came through muted and indistinct, a chair being knocked over onto the carpet or the muffled buzzing of a conversation” (1240).
Figurative Language • Personification • “it was pleasant to see a pile of tangled wool in her knitting basket fighting a losing battle for a few hours to retain its shape” (1238). • “needles flashing, and one or two knitting baskets on the floor, the balls of yarn jumping about” (1239).
Treatment of Time • Time is Chronological • Events in the story occur in a sequential order • The first noise confines the narrator and Irene to one side of the house • A few days later the second set of noises drive the two siblings out of the home
Political/Cultural Messages • Noises represent a new generation replacing an old, aristocratic one • Noises symbolize mysterious forces that can attack the mind • “Their minds are invaded by subconscious impulses which they initially can suppress but which finally increase in power and overwhelm them” (Lanin Gyurko).
Political/Cultural Messages • “depicts an oppressive atmosphere in which educated people from the middle class find themselves trapped in bizarre and incomprehensible situations” (Nouzeilles and Montaldo 328) • “interpreted as a metaphor for Peronist Argentina, when an advancing faceless threatening other (the poor, the racially mixed, the masses) takes over and finally destroys the balance of bourgeois home” (Nouzeilles and Montaldo 328)
theme A new generation replacing an old, aristocratic one Cortazar criticizes the Peronist government The story shows the social anxieties of Buenos Aires’s upper class under the Peronist government (the upper class being Irene and her brother)
The mysterious invasion in House Taken Over symbolizes the empowerment of the middle-class after Juan Peron becomes president of Argentina in 1944. • The upper-class lose power and status under the influence of Peronism. Likewise, Irene and her brother lose their house to a mysterious force. • The house (symbolizing the country) that the sibling (upper-class) have lived in for so long was becomes unfamiliar ~ The aristocrats of Argentina felt rather out of place as old customs faded.
The fall of the house represents the end of the siblings’ family line ~ “We were easing into our forties with the unvoiced concept that the quiet, simple marriage of sister and brother was the indispensable end to a line established in this house by our grandparents” (1238). • Slowly, as a distinct middle-class formed in Argentina, the upper-class became worried about losing their power ~ “ The first few days were painful, since we’d both left so many things in the part than had been taken over… It happened repeatedly (but only in the first few days) that we would lose some drawer or cabinet and look at one another sadly” (1240). (Stuff = power) ~ “ ‘They’ve taken over our section,' Irene said. ‘Did you have time to bring anything?’ I asked hopelessly. ‘No, nothing.’”
House Taken Over is based on a nightmare of Cortazar's. It is possible to say that the upper class Argentinians felt as if they were hallucinating as their country changed before their eyes.
Cortazar’s Life • Born August 24, 1914 in Belgium • Died February 12, 1984 in France • Became a teacher for many grade levels • 1937-44 he starts to write short stories • 1948-51 starts to work as a public translator • Published many books • Fascinated by psychology, psychoanalysis and anthropology • He “spoke of the radically new and joyful nature of every instant, of the body, the memory and the imagination of men and women” (Carlos Fuentes)
Notable Books • Principal works • Bestiary/Bestiario 1951 • Hopscotch 1967 • Las Babas del Diablo • Rantomas Takes on the Multinational Vampires 1975
Motivation • Like other authors he wanted to criticize leaders they felt that were wrong • Ex. Peron who supported social justice and supported by communists • Gave his view on “reality” • “spoke of the radically new and joyful nature of every instant, of the body, the memory and the imagination of men and women” (Carlos Fuentes) • “entertaining us with the world’s marvels and assaulting us with paradox and absurdity to provoke an epiphany of reality, of the Absolute, which either exists in our funny everyday world” (Robert Coover)
Use of Magical Realism • Fantasy turns into reality for the narcissistic characters • “Cortazar had the literary secret for conceiving a second reality where houses are patiently taken over, room by room” (Carlos Fuentes) • “The fantasy paradises created by the narcissistic self is unsustainable” (Lanin A. Gyurko) • “entertaining us with the world’s marvels and assaulting us with paradox and absurdity to provoke an epiphany of reality, of the Absolute, which either exists in our funny everyday world” (Robert Coover) • Most of his stories have repeating parts • “There is throughout Cortazar’s work a recurrence of classical motifs and figures that answers to this general philological trend” (Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria) • “His [Cortazar's] characters never successfully compete their quest, in spite of their anguished attempts” (Amaryll B. Chandy)
