House Of Sand And Fog Character Analysis

House of Sand and Fog sense of self essay

In House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, the author states an epigraph in the beginning of the novel from (“ The Balcony” by Octavio Paz): “Beyond myself/ somewhere/ I wait for my arrival.” This epigraph defines ones sense of self and Behrani, Kathy, and Lester in House of Sand and Fog all have a sense of self in some way. It may not be clear at first but the author burn’s an image of each character’s personality into the readers head. By the end of the novel it becomes quite clear of which character feels right at home with their sense of self and that Lester has the clearest sense of self.
Dubus makes it clear through the novel that Behrani’s sense of self is to return his current status
This sense of self first becomes an idea to the reader when Kathy loses her house and doesn’t tell anyone. She has had a horrible past with drug and alcohol addiction. Her family knew about it which gave them an idea of what kind of person Kathy is. At the same time Kathy makes them think there’s hope by overcoming her addictions from going to drug rehab and AA groups. Dubus shows key examples that support how Kathy hides the truth. At one point Kathy utters to Lester “’Anyway, we never should have been charged a tax at all, and I only own half of the house in the first place. My lawyer’s confident, though, so I’m trying not to harp on the negative.’” ‘Your husband hold the rest?’ ‘My brother. He doesn’t know about any of this yet. No one does’”(page 52). She is scared to tell her family about the house because she knows they’ll think she has no hope and is a disappointment. Another example that author draws our attention to is when Kathy wrote back to her mom,“Hi Ma, I’m sorry I haven’t called you. A bad earth tremor rolled through here last week and a tree hit the phone lines down the street. As soon as they’re fixed I’ll let you know. Also , that’s good news about your coming out here but Nick and I won’t be in town this weekend. He’s taking me on a business trip. Sorry to miss you”(page 147). Kathy purposely lies so that her
Lester first points out “ But always it was the same—“Burdone maricon! Burdone maricon!”—and Lester would try and avoid the fight as long as possible. First he would deny to himself that that was where this name-calling was really going; he would try to smile off whatever insult was coming his way, and only when he felt the push of hands on his chest would he push back, hoping that would be enough, which it never was, and he would hold up fists he had no faith in only to be knocked to the ground, where he would stay curled up waiting for a teacher or someone to break it up or for the bully to lose interest and disappear. But they rarely did”(page 232). It’s apparent that Lester’s sense of self entered his life when he was young and in high school. He was bullied and picked on because he was quiet and had a lanky body figure. This created a buildup of hate and anger toward people he disliked. He shows some of his sense of self when Dubus draws our attention to “he’d squeeze the cuffs on to tight, then pull him by the wrists to his feet. If he cried out, Lester would lean close to his ear and tell him to shut up”(page 233). He does the littlest things like put handcuffs on too tight when he arrested criminals, or purposely hit their heads on the door frame while putting them in the back seat of the patrol car. Lester