House Taken Over Flashcards
Briefly describe the house in which the narrator and his sister live.
The narrator and his sister live in a wonderfully ornate, large house that has been passed down from generation to generation.
What is the source of the siblings’ income?
They do not have to work for a living because they receive income from their family’s farm.
How do Irene and the narrator occupy their time?
Aside from cleaning their home, the siblings engage in their relatively uninteresting hobbies: the sister knits, while the brother reads books and organizes his father’s old stamp collection.
What decision do Irene and the narrator make when they realize the back part of the house has been taken over?
They occupy a small section in the front of the home and lock themselves in there. They prepare daily meals and make sure they have enough cold meals for the evening. While Irene knits, the narrator sorts stamps.
What happens to the brother and sister at the end of the story?
At the end of the story, the siblings are forced out of their home and they abandon it. They also throw away the key so no one else can enter the house.
To what social class do the brother and sister belong? How
do you know? (b) Connect How are the characters’ hobbies evidence of
their social class?
(a) The narrator and his sister belong to the upper class. They do not have to work for a living. (b) They spend a lot of time knitting, reading, and sorting stamps, hobbies that working class people either can’t afford or don’t have time for.
How is the behavior the siblings exhibit during sleep different from their behavior while awake? (b) Analyze What does this difference suggest about their true reactions to the invasion of the house?
(a) While awake, the siblings mostly are quiet. At night the narrator flails about in his sleep, while his sister talks in her sleep. (b) The nocturnal behavior of the siblings suggests that they are unsettled and troubled about the invasion of the house.
