Julio Cortazars House Taken Over

Ever Feel Like Your Home Isn’t Really Yours?

Have you ever felt like your home wasn’t really yours anymore? Like some weird, invisible force took over? That’s exactly the kind of creepy vibe Julio Cortazar taps into in his short story "House Taken Over." Set in a big old mansion in Buenos Aires, it follows two siblings as they’re slowly edged out by something mysterious. This 'thing' starts upstairs and works its way down, pushing them to the ground floor. What’s going on here, really? Well, the story's got us thinking about what it means to own stuff and who’s actually calling the shots. In this essay, I’m gonna dive into how Cortazar uses space in the house to show what’s happening inside the characters’ heads too. Let’s dig into how "House Taken Over" could be a metaphor for how outside forces can mess with our sense of security and control. Come along as we uncover the hidden layers in Cortazar's spooky tale.

The Creepy Vibe Kicks In Early On

The story gets eerie fast. The siblings start noticing strange things happening in their once-familiar home. This weird presence moves from the upper floors downwards, just like their growing sense of being pushed out and losing grip on things. It’s like a metaphor for how sneaky external stuff can mess with our feeling of safety and freedom. By checking out how space is used in the house, we can see what’s eating at the characters inside and think about bigger ideas of ownership and control. As lines between real-world stuff and more abstract ideas get blurry, Cortazar makes us question just how solid our boundaries are and what our relationship with our living spaces really means.

Storytelling Tricks Amp Up The Spookiness

Cortazar doesn’t just rely on spatial symbolism; he uses storytelling tricks to crank up the tension too. Stuff like suspense, hints at future events (foreshadowing), and leaving some things unanswered give the whole narrative a creepy tension you can't shake off. This openness lets readers come up with their own theories about what’s haunting these siblings. It's this very ambiguity that adds so many layers of meaning to dig through, making the story even richer.

Ownership And Control – Big Themes At Play Here

The whole idea of owning stuff and having control speaks to broader issues about power plays in society and personal agency. The siblings getting shoved down to just one floor? It mirrors how we might give up control to outside forces – be it social norms, political agendas, or even tricky relationships. It's a warning against letting go of who we are and what's important to us under pressure from others. Watching how these characters deal with shifting dynamics at home gives us insight into human relations – how we hold onto or lose bits of ourselves.

Diving Deep Into Cortazar’s Tale

A close look at "House Taken Over" offers insights galore on ownership, control, and identity issues. Space symbolism, clever writing tricks, and deep themes all come together beautifully here to make us think hard about power dynamics in our lives. Exploring this unsettling tale can help us see how external pressures creep into our lives – testing our limits while urging us not just fold when facing unknown threats.

What Can We Learn From All This?

This story leaves plenty open for thought beyond its pages too! Looking into other literature reflecting societal power struggles or identity complexity would be worth exploring more deeply indeed! Checking out spatial symbolism & suspense use across various stories could add extra layers understanding what shapes perceptions world around us too!

• Cortázar, J., & Paulson-Gjerde, L. (1967). The Bestiary: Short Stories / 1963 - English (pp 1-12)
• Sarlo D.: Borges y los autores modernos: Los caminos de la historia literaria; Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos 1989 issue no 483 Pages79-87
• Kerridge P.: Writing Beyond Realism” Latin American Literary Review volume24 Issue48 Winter1996 pp18-23

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