The Spirit House | Literary Qualities

The Spirit House Literary Qualities

The Spirit House is narrated by Julie, a sophomore in high school, who is very judgmental and overly concerned with being popular. She seems selfish, immature, and mean-spirited—if her dismayed anticipation that her family's Thai guest will be a nerdish bookworm who will cause her embarrassment and loss of popularity at school is any indication. Her delight that the teenager who shows up is handsome and worldly, a boy who could inspire envy in her girlfriends and those that she wants to impress, makes her seem to be only a statusseeking airhead. Her narration, under the circumstances, is one that demands that readers try to read between the lines. The selfish Julie may well be overstating the closed-mindedness of her mother, whose disciplining angers her. In the case of Bia, Julie's thoughts are so confused that one must question everything she says about him. Once suspicions that Bia is a...
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