Welcome to Dead House

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1992

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-14

Chapters 15-18

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

The Benefits of Teamwork and Trust

Teamwork and trust play a large role throughout Welcome to Dead House. The characters struggle with trusting both themselves and others, finding that they can make better choices and take more appropriate actions when trust is present. Through Amanda’s relationships with her parents, Josh, and Mr. Dawes, the novel shows how teamwork is key to success while also highlighting the dangers of placing trust in the wrong people.

From the first time that Amanda sees a strange figure inside Dead House, she begins to wonder if there’s something odd about the house and town. However, whenever she brings these concerns to her parents, they are shot down because her parents are too busy to listen and too unwilling to believe what Amanda is saying. This divides Amanda and her parents, who she finds she cannot trust with her feelings and concerns. As a result, Amanda feels isolated and starts to doubt what she sees and experiences, which leads to problems with self-trust and ultimately puts her family in greater danger. As a child, Amanda looks to her parents for guidance and understanding, and their dismissive attitude symbolizes the power that adults have over children’s abilities to trust themselves and others.

As a result of her parents dismissing her concerns, Amanda starts to wonder if she’s making up the strangeness of Dark Falls. When she meets the kids of the town in Chapter 9, Amanda feels threatened and is sure the kids mean to do her and Josh harm. After Mr. Dawes breaks the tension, however, Amanda convinces herself that she imagined the whole thing, comforting herself with the idea that “at least [she] hadn’t made a total fool of [her]self” (70). This doubt allows the kids to ambush her and Josh again in Chapter 15. Once Amanda realizes that she was right all along, she is able to rekindle her self-trust and take action. Only when she finds evidence to support her beliefs while her parents are in danger does Amanda come to trust herself. The proof and her parents’ subsequent support renews Amanda’s trust and shows the power of listening to oneself.

Amanda and Josh are very different people, but once they both start experiencing strange events within Dead House and the town, Amanda and Josh realize that they can come to each other with their concerns. This leads to a stronger relationship between the siblings, exemplified by Amanda’s willingness to venture out into the graveyard at night at Josh’s insistence. Amanda and Josh’s trust in one another is solidified by the plan to rescue their parents. Josh doesn’t know if Amanda’s plan to knock over the tree can work, but he helps her anyway because he now understands that their trust in one another is all they have left. His decision to trust means the kids are able to save their parents and escape Dark Falls, showing how trust and teamwork bring about positive outcomes.

Alternatively, the family places their trust in the realtor Mr. Dawes simply because he is a professional adult who appears to be on their side. This trust is broken when it is revealed that Mr. Dawes is one of the living dead and that everything he has done for the family in the narrative has been leading to their deaths. Stine thus uses the character of Mr. Dawes to depict the untrustworthiness of some people, even adults, who appear to be helpful and kind. Ultimately, Amanda and Josh are able to save their parents on their own, using teamwork to overcome the obstacles they face.

Reality and the Supernatural

Welcome to Dead House is a story about the intersection of what is real and unreal. The novel explores what makes something true, even when things seem like they should be impossible. Through the Bensons’ dog, Amanda’s parents, and Amanda herself, Welcome to Dead House shows that the line between reality and the supernatural is a thin one.

The supernatural is more real to some than others—in Chapter 13 after Amanda discovers the kids’ gravestones, Ray confirms that her dog is dead, saying, “[D]ogs always recognize the living dead. That’s why they have to go first” (96). Due to his heightened instincts, the dog can pick up on the supernatural aspects of Dark Falls from the moment the family first visits the town. The dog is unencumbered by higher thought processes or the ability to rationalize what he experiences, which means that he accepts the truth before the Bensons do. The dog’s death is a necessary part of the story. Until then, Amanda is unable to rationalize the strangeness, but losing the dog makes the supernatural threat real and personal. This turn of events forces her to accept the truth and shows how reality changes based on how connected one is to their surroundings.

Amanda is a character who spends much of the story doubting herself and her sense of reality. When Amanda begins to see and experience strange things in Dead House, she initially is sure that these things are real. The dismissal of them by her parents makes her question this, but this dismissal does not stop the strange events or make them have less of an impact on her life. When she finds the proof of the townspeople in the cemetery and of her dead dog, Amanda is forced to confront the supernatural and admit that it is real, even if it is difficult to believe. The strangeness of the town does not make it any less real, and the unlikelihood of the supernatural elements does not make them any less of a danger, showing how reality does not change just because one refuses to believe in it.

Though Welcome to Dead House focuses on the line between reality and the supernatural, the lessons it offers through this thematic exploration may be applied to other aspects of life. Acceptance of the truth and reality can help readers come to terms with anything, not only the existence of forces that can’t be explained. Through a supernatural lens, the book teaches the reader that they must accept their world and their personal interpretation of reality if they wish to understand how to navigate it.

Survival Instincts in Dire Circumstances

The desire to live is one of the strongest drives that humans possess. Whether alive or the living dead, the characters of Welcome to Dead House will do whatever it takes to continue surviving. Through the actions that Amanda and Josh take, Karen’s character, and the climax of the narrative, the novel explores what people will do to survive.

Sometimes, surviving means going against one’s nature. Prior to moving to Dark Falls, Amanda and Josh lived innocent lives. As middle-class American kids, they have been comfortable and wanted for little, meaning that they have never understood what it means to be in true danger. Once they move to Dark Falls and begin experiencing strange events, the kids realize that this town threatens them in ways they are not prepared for. At first, they think that they can just sidestep these threats, but when it becomes clear that the town means to sacrifice them for its own survival, the kids are forced to change their perspective. In contrast to their lives before, they now must take action directly against others, something they are unfamiliar with. In the process, they destroy the living dead to save themselves, a process that acts as a coming-of-age transition. This experience fundamentally alters who Amanda and Josh are, showing how the drive to survive can completely change how we understand and participate in the world.

Another example of the drive for survival can be observed in the character of Karen, who must choose between sustaining herself and befriending Amanda. In Chapter 10, Karen seems to genuinely like Amanda, which is bolstered by how she later apologizes for her actions and thanks Amanda for knocking over the tree above the amphitheater. Thus, Karen is forced to make a choice to either befriend or work against Amanda. The first option lowers Karen’s chances of survival but gives Karen something she wants (a friend), and the second increases the chances of survival but harms Amanda, something Karen doesn’t seem to want. Ultimately, Karen joins the other kids to work against Amanda, even though this isn’t necessarily what she wants to do, showing how the drive for survival typically wins out.

When Amanda and Josh push over the tree above the amphitheater, sunlight floods the space and harms the living dead. Though the living dead held all the power before, this sudden change in their situation makes them forget about their duty to the town and their need for fresh blood. Instead, they become almost like animals, and as Amanda and Josh watch, the living dead begin “scrambling over one another, screeching, pulling, climbing, pushing, trying to claw their way to shade” (123). In the mad rush to escape the sunlight, the townspeople no longer care for one another. Instead, they are each consumed with the all-encompassing need to get away from the thing harming them. They are willing to leave their friends and family to die as long as they survive, showing the strength of the survival instinct. They are willing to fight for even this bleak existence, demonstrating that quality of life does not necessarily change the drive to survive.