59 pages • 1 hour read
The House at the End of the World
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Symbols & Motifs
Art and Poetry
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses child sexual abuse and murder.
The motif of art and poetry in the novel reflects The Role of Beauty in the Search for Meaning. Although she has a logical, analytical mind, Katie sees the world through art, makes connections to authors, composers, and painters throughout the crises. Koontz describes her daily life as including a few hours of classical music by Beethoven, Mozart, or Liszt and evening reading of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, or Joseph Conrad. As she discovers more unsettling evidence of a supernatural creature, Katie compares what she’s feeling to horrific paintings by Goya and Fuseli. At the height of her crisis with Hampton Rice, Katie comforts herself with the words of T.S. Eliot, finding in them “profound trust that mercy and meaning are woven through the fabric of the world” (144). She thinks about these words again as she and Libby escape the island for the mainland. It’s clear that she relies on great art of all genres to help her make emotional sense of the world. However, Katie isn’t an art snob, either; near the end of the book, at Gladie’s Place, she stops to appreciate a wall of photos tacked up on the diner’s corkboard, highlighting regulars of the restaurant. She thinks that those photos are “as moving and profound as the contents of any art museum” (380). Katie can find “beauty and magic in every place” because her artist’s eye has taught her how to look for it (372).
Control
The novel presents complicated ideas about control, a motif that, in a few cases, suggests that Preparation is the Best Defense. For instance, Katie’s thorough preparations for an eventual disaster save her and Libby’s lives; however, these preparations are also a form of Katie taking control in a situation in which she has been denied control of so much. On the whole, however, Katie values freedom, offering Libby the chance to join her in specific efforts even when she doesn’t agree and allowing Michael J. to choose his relationship with her. In contrast, most of the villains are object lessons for what happens when a quest for control goes too far. Lupo, Hamal, and Parker have all committed rape, a form of violent bodily and sexual control. Zenon attempts to steal the engine to Katie’s boat to control who can leave Jacob’s Ladder and when. Raleigh champions the endeavor to study Moloch because he hopes that it will help humans control their own biology. Moloch itself can seize and control other lifeforms, resulting in their destruction. Katie believes that Moloch’s presence on earth is due to people in power “who believe they can […] control anything they wish to control, who believe that it is their right […] to shape the destinies of their neighbors, cities, nations and the Earth entire” (269). Ultimately, the novel depicts the impulse to control unfavorably because even Katie’s post-tragedy attempts to assert control over the details of her life on Jacob’s Ladder contribute to her isolation, almost leading to the death of her spirit.
Food
The novel contains many detailed descriptions of food that both engage the senses and symbolize care and consumption. When Katie makes her “last meal” on Jacob’s Ladder, she puts time and intention into it because food is “one of the few things that still give her pleasure in life” (123). Her meal is steak, a potato-and-pepper dish, and kumquat and walnut crepes, all made lovingly—almost meditatively. Despite cooking the meal for herself, Katie has no compunction about giving all of her steak away when the fox comes in from the storm outside, joking with him, “Just don’t think it will be filet mignon every day” (148). Sharing her food is a way that she cares for Michael J. and makes him feel at ease in her home.
Later in the novel, though, Nonna Giana shares a similarly lavish meal of Sicilian food with her grandson, Robert Zenon. Over this food, the two plot and scheme, agreeing to be brutal, to “break the fuckers” with blackmail and subterfuge (312). Later, Nonna Giana uses the leftovers of that same meal to deceive Katie and Libby, offering them pepperoni, wine, bread, and pudding to distract them from her real goal of shooting them. Upstairs, Zenon has finished fusing with Moloch, named after the eater of children. He gobbles huge amounts of electricity right before he consumes Nonna Giana herself. In this case, food—typically a symbol of nurture and nourishment—symbolizes both deception and consumption.
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By Dean Koontz
