In the passage titled Dreamhouse as Unreliable Narrator, Machado recalls her childhood and how her parents loved to refer to her as “’melodramatic,’ or even worse, ‘a drama queen.” Here, readers see that Machado is angry and upset to see her poetic outrage at the world’s injustice reduced to a plea for attention. In this passage, Machado understands that writing memoirs is sort of like constructing a home- it must be precise or else it falls apart. However, the problem is that women’s feelings are rarely ever considered precise. Therefore, when constructing this memoir; many question whether or not her version of the story is telling the accurate truth or if it’s her exaggerating. This passage goes back to the idea of Machado’s narrative form and the fact that Machado writes using vignettes/fragments- it is her way of telling her story as she is going back to her past. Memory does not happen in chronological order and here, Machado claims that when it comes to creative nonfiction; it is always an unreliable narrator in the sense that we ourselves are subjective as well as the things we remember. In the end, this is how Machado chooses to tell her story and anyone who attempts to change that ultimately destroy its original meaning and purpose.

I find Machado's vignette Dream House as Pathetic Fallacy particularly interesting. Pathetic Fallacy as a literary device attributes human feelings to inanimate things. Thus, Machado is using pathetic fallacy in order to invoke an image of her decaying abusive relationship. Just like the vegetables in the fridge which are healthy and lively in the beginning slowly start to rot and spoil; the same can be said for Machado's relationship with her girlfriend. At this point in her memoir, Machado no longer views her relationship as something that is viable and alive. Rather, it has become "like death" and "rot." Machado's use of pathetic fallacy reminds me of Anzaldua in terms of their writing style. Both Machado and Anzaldua are able to give life through their writing and use of fantastical language.

In this section Dream House as Queer Villainy, Machado defends her love of queer villains from Disney and cinema. Machado is fascinated by the contradictions manifested by queer villains, however, she makes it clear that she is not celebrating the stereotypes often exaggerated by queer villains, where they are portrayed as substitutes for for de-humanizing fears about queer people. This quote shows that Machado does not support villainy and she is not looking to explain her ex-girlfriends behavior from a sympathetic point of view. Rather, Machado views the analysis of villains as part of a larger framework that understands queerness to be radiant and queer relationships to be complex. Machado is claiming that queer villains underline points about how queerness does not equal "right" or "good," and queer villains can be queer and sinister and those things can exist on the same plane. The problem is a lack of queer representation and if there was more representation; the queer villain would seem less of a problem.

Growing up as a Dominican American child of immigrants; Yunior's father has always wanted Yunior to become fully assimilated in to the American life and leave the Dominican Republic behind. Yunior learning English has been something that has been forced upon him to learn and perfect, thus, straying him away further from his Spanish speaking roots. This quote demonstrates the internalized racism occurring between Yunior and who he calls the "Cape Verdean girl." This correlates back to "Alma," when she called Yunior a "fake ass Dominican" because it shows how Yunior struggles to come to terms with his Dominican identity. The "Cape Verdean girl" is clearly prejudiced against Yunior for not being able to speak Spanish because she is still closely attached to her Dominican identity and mocks Yunior for not being able to speak Spanish.

Yunior feels ashamed to have had sex with an older woman whose figure departs from the curvaceous ideal he and his male peers offer (i.e. Rafa and Yunior's father.) Given the critical tenor of Yunior's description of Miss Lora's physique, we can wonder if he is actually attracted to her, or if he is merely mimicking his brother's taste. Rafa was the ideal Dominican stud and would go after any girl he had his eye on. Even though Miss Lora's body type does not fit into the ideal mold of femininity he has been taught to value; his fascination of her is only because of Rafa. We see here again the production of desire from male mentors to male mentees; Rafa's desires will/have become Yunior's.

This section correlates back to the theme of masculinity. Throughout his childhood, Rafa could do whatever he wanted and however he pleased since his mother had always taken special care of him. His mother took care of the household duties and worked in a factory in order to provide for her family. It was not until Rafa got sick that he decided to get a job. However, it had nothing to do with helping with finances and instead he wanted to work for his own ego as he became weaker and feared becoming less capable as doing things as a man.