Selling the possessions we know we love for possessions we think we need is something that the world has enforced on us through media, advertising and societal expectations. When the story House, by Jane Rule started out Harry was exclaiming his frustration saying “It’s a case of retarded development.” This was believed to be an initiating conflict or so we believed. Let us explore what it was that Harry was truly frustrated with, something that was merely foreshadowed and not exclaimed. At the beginning we believed that the conflict was person versus person. Harry versus his wife, Anna. Harry stated that since Anna didn’t want to live like everyone else she was underdeveloped, different an outcast. She did not want a nice fancy house and to live with the appearance of being wealthy. It seemed to me she wanted to feel rich with experiences. Harry’s frustration proved the story to be person versus person. A wife and a husband who had different viewpoints on life. However, as the story unfolds we are shown that Harry did not in fact have very far off view points from his wife. He simply thought he had to want a house, and had to spend his money on the more conventional possessions. We see that his true frustration, which was in fact foreshadowing for the main conflict how the wold being a retarded development. How the world has shaped him to become so wrapped up in wanting something that he truly didn’t want. As he smashes down the wall to his brand new house we see how he truly believes that the world is in fact underdeveloped and has almost set rules on how to live your life, which are truly unnecessary. Our society teaches us to go to school, get a strong education, attend post secondary, get a well payed job, get married, have kids, buy a house and teach them to do exactly the same. None of these steps in life are wrong, but they aren’t exactly right either. What about travel, seeing new things, meeting so many people, living somewhere new and helping the people that do not get to have the same opportunities as we do. We are given so much knowledge in life and how is it fair that we are only supposed to use it one outlet, our full time average job. We should be able to take the knowledge and use it for unconventional things in order to move our society away from being a retarded development. The world is full of so many experiences and if we are too focused on a goal that we don’t even feel passionate about and are only trying to accomplish for the satisfaction of being like the rest, we truly won’t be satisfied once we attain societies expectations. It is important that we listen to the side of ourselves that is true and wants to live life in a way that makes us feel good, not the side that has a voice like societies. The voice that tells us that we haven’t achieved something unless it shows to others. Because we can never make ourselves happy by trying to please or show up others. Harry, at the height of his person versus self conflicted, once he finally reached his hope of being like all the other families in town, came to a realization or epiphany that it wasn’t what he, himself wanted: “What could you feel about a house, particularly an ordinary sensible sort….You could feel awful, and that’s what Harry felt.” Page 29. He had no feeling of pride only of guilt and shame for giving into the side of himself that wanted to be what society is. That’s when he realized that his family and the experiences he creates with them cannot be replaced with house and a television set.
Excellent analysis!