How does the author use symbolism in the novel, Universal Harvester?

In Universal Harvester, houses are more than just houses -- they reflect and hold the significance of the people who live in them. In this way, the houses symbolize periods of life and states of mind, providing physical representations and reminders of personal history.

Just as region has significance in this novel, defining it as very much a novel of place, the physical houses within which these characters live their lives in turn reveal something about those who live in them. The Collins house, particularly, is a focal point in the novel. It is an old farm house, in which Lisa Sample lives and has her studio in which she edits films and splices her home videos onto the tapes she collects from Video Hut. When Sarah Jane stays with her in the house, the two discuss the history of old farmhouses in the region and the significance these houses held to their childhoods, relics of a simpler time, perhaps, in the history of the American Midwest.