Cortazar does not state who had “taken over” the house which has readers, including me, with a different point of view of what could have happened. Anybody can interpret the story in a variety of ways which I found the short story very unique. It made me think of different possibilities of who could have “taken over” the house. Nevertheless, it reminded me of certain aspects of life.

For example, at the very beginning of the story - 

             “We liked the house because, apart from its being old and spacious (in a day when old houses go down for a profitable auction of their construction materials), it kept the memories of great-grandparents, our paternal grandfather, our parents and the whole of childhood”

- it shows that the siblings did not care about how old the house was. They were not willing to put the house up for auction to earn money, yet they conserved it due to the history and memories created in the house. 

This specific section of the story reminded me of a time when the house of my maternal grandmother was being remodeled for the first time since 1949. My grandmother did not want her kitchen to be torn down nor remodeled. Instead, the carpenters worked around her kitchen without touching anything inside her kitchen. Her kitchen was very significant because it was the one place where her husband and kids would gather all at once during dinner every day, but it also reminded her of her own mother’s kitchen which she inherited. I have visited her a couple of times, and unlike other kitchens in the town, my grandma’s kitchen did not have a modern stove. She still uses a fireplace to cook meals. My grandma was convinced to have some parts of her kitchen remodeled because it was considered a hazardous place to be in case of strong winds or extreme rainfall. Although the rest of the house had proper walls and roof, her kitchen remained like old times where clay was used for the wall and huge palms were used for the roof. Even though it took a lot of time for my grandma to decide to change the appearance of her kitchen, cement was used to support the wall and the roof was supported with tile-roof. She was satisfied because she was still able to consume and use the fireplace for cooking.  

Although the siblings had the option to make money off of their childhood house, they considered not to, but the brother had the thought that if they had not taken the house, then their distant cousins would have been the ones to earn money off of it.

            “We would die here someday, obscure and distant cousins would inherit the place, have it torn down, sell the bricks and get rich on the building plot; or more justly and better yet, we would topple it ourselves before it was too late”

Going back to the first paragraph of the story, the brother knew that if someone else were to get hold of the house, profit was going to be made and would not care about the sentimental value of the house. With that being said, in my perspective, whoever was “taking over the house” it could have been someone who was trying to scare them off the house in order to sell the house.  

Cortazar uses magical realism in this story. Magical realism is a narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. This gave an autonomous style of literature to Cortazar’s “House Taken Over.”

I have visited several countries in Latin America, and to my experience, I always hear a lot of superstitions that a few believe, and others do not. These superstitions are like magical elements added to the realistic world, to make life interesting. For example, a very known superstition belief that I hear from my family has gotten me to believe it at times. Whenever the left-hand is itching, it means that one will soon be receiving money, therefore one must close the hand tightly to assure that the money will come. At times whenever my left-hand does itch, I immediately shut my hand and when least expected I do receive money, but other times, I end up spending a significant amount of money. 

Overall, in the story, the use of magical realism helps me understand Latin American culture in a very great perspective.