52 pages • 1 hour read
Sarah PekkanenHouse of Glass
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Barclay House
The Barclay house is one of most overt symbols in the novel; its nature is emphasized in the title, and this “house of glass” is ironically lacking in any glass whatsoever. Following their nanny’s mysterious fall to her death through one of the house’s windows, Ian and Beth have all of the glass in the house replaced with plastic or plexiglass, claiming that Beth has recently developed an intense phobia of glass. Initially, Stella attributes the lack of glass to the family’s desire to keep potential weapons out of Rose’s hands, but in reality, the Barclay house stands as a repository of Secrecy and Dysfunctional Families. Because each family member is deeply flawed in their own way, the titular “house of glass” also invokes the old proverb warning against throwing stones in a glass house. Ultimately, Stella uncovers the truth: that Harriet is the murderer and has been engaging in a thorough smear campaign to cast blame on Rose. The family did indeed remove the glass in their home to prevent Rose from turning various broken objects into weapons, but they did so without realizing that their fear was entirely engineered and unfounded. The novel’s title thus becomes a sly, tongue-in-cheek commentary on the nature of secrets and dysfunction, as despite the family’s attempts to strip their home of potential weapons, it remains a dangerous place. Although everything is now plastic, the “glass” is symbolic of the threat posed to the family by Harriet’s presence at the heart of their familial interactions.
Stella’s Flashbacks and Panic Attacks
Stella is often plagued by panic attacks and flashbacks to her traumatic childhood, and their frequency increases as she delves into Rose’s family history. Stella’s persistent struggles to improve her mental health allow the author to explore The Lasting Impact of Childhood Trauma and provide a window into the protagonist’s decisions and career aspirations. Stella was driven to become a best interest attorney because of her history of childhood trauma and because she was sent to live with an aunt who did not love her or treat her with kindness. Stella cares deeply for her young clients and is a thorough and meticulous worker, but the narrative implies that her work with traumatized children is also an attempt to process her own childhood trauma. She is drawn to Rose because the girl, like Stella, has experienced traumatic mutism. Stella sees much of herself in Rose, and her flashbacks and panic attacks grow more frequent as she spends more time with the Barclay family. Stella’s willingness to put herself in situations that both trigger and retraumatize her becomes a powerful and important step within her healing journey, as by “facing” her fears through her work with Rose, she gains the ability to face her own past.
Weapons
Weapons are another of the novel’s key symbols. In the first scene, Stella observes Rose sneak a shard of glass into her pocket, and she also steals a variety of other improvised weapons. The presence of weapons is at the very core of the Barclay family’s complex web of secrets and deception. Stella initially suspects Rose of being the murderer and cites her interest in weapons as evidence of this possibility. However, Rose has actually been trying to amass a collection of weapons to keep herself safe from her murderous grandmother. In this way, weapons also speak to the thematic struggle against manifestations of evil in plain sight. House of Glass does not function as a straightforward examination of the nature of evil but instead engages in a meditation on the complexity of this fraught topic. Because the meaning of the weapons shifts throughout the narrative, the author implies that while evil may be present in the world, it hides itself from detection and is difficult to identify.
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By Sarah Pekkanen
