The Unpassing

How does Gavin's family's home change over the course of the novel, The Unpassing?

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The author focuses on describing the way the home changes over time. It was built near the end of the World War II boom, and was the first house to be built in a neighborhood that was never finished. It is in disrepair already when the family moves in: There are mushrooms growing in the bathroom, “figure-eight gouges” on the floor from an earthquake, a broken chimney, and a dirty wood stove (10). The house changes over the course of the novel, first when Ruby’s furniture is removed, and then later when the family finds flying squirrels in the attic that they have to remove. When the family starts struggling financially, they can no longer afford to heat the home as well, and it gets colder and colder. In Chapter 15, when the family returns from their so-called vacation to their home from which they have been evicted, they live there in darkness so as to avoid others seeing them, and with only a small wood stove for heating. The state of the house falls into greater disrepair, paralleling the family's decline.

Source(s)

The Unpassing