Behind The House By Steven Millhauser Summary

After reading Lydia Davis’s "Behind the House" and Steven Millhauser’s "Polish Miracle", these two articles discussed the protagonist's personal life and the social situation at that time. The theme of the two articles was aspiration and yearning for the good life. In Davis’s story, the focus is on the minutiae of everyday life. At the beginning, the author describes the class differences between people who live in the house behind and people who live in the front house. the protagonist’s infatuation with the house behind, as well as the interesting inhabitants and their seemingly better life, which highlight the tension between reality and aspiration.Through a murder, it tells the various psychological states of people in the two buildings,

The people living in the house behind appear to be enjoying a more fulfilled and interesting life. Millhauser’s “Miracle Polish,” on the other hand, explores themes of fantasy It depicts a man who acquires a magical polish one day that enhances the reflection in mirrors, making everything appear more beautiful and idealized. Since then, he has continued to purchase different sizes of mirrors to place in rooms of the house so that he can always admire his confident and youthful self in the mirror. The protagonist’s dependence on polish is increasing day by day, highlighting his overly obsession with the idealized life. “I wasn’t unaware that I was behaving oddly, like a man in the grip of an obsession”() Both stories show that the pursuit of an idealized "good life" will lead to dissatisfaction and loss of sense of direction in life. They make readers question the nature of their aspirations and the way they measure life and make seemingly better choices. By presenting characters who strive to pursue a better life, Davis and Millhouser reveal the complexities and contradictions inherent in human pursuit of

This house is called "behind the house", which symbolizes an idealized life and is also a place where the upper class live. The narrator believes that it represents order, serenity and aesthetic perfection, and he believes that his life lacks these qualities. The reality is that the narrator lives in the place where the lower class lives, which represents chaos, jealousy, darkness, etc. At the same time, I think the narrator's love for the house behind also reflects his deep desire to improve his life and escape from the status quo. He hoped that his life would be more fulfilling and fun, etc. This desire for a better life reflected the dissatisfaction experience of most ordinary people at that time, as well as the belief that a perfect life existed elsewhere, and that the idealized life did not belong to him.To some extent, the good life that the protagonist aspires to is unattainable. Critique of Society This story can be regarded as a criticism of consumerism. People are always looking for the next best thing, rather than finding satisfaction in their own lives. Just as the protagonist idealizes some aspects of life, this idea is usually realized through superficial measures such as material wealth and appearance. These illusions and ideas are not in line with the actual life of the individual. We should pay more