Like a House on Fire Literary Elements

Short story; literary fiction

Small, suburban communities in Australia; present day

In this collection, Kennedy's stories are either from the first-person perspective, or a close-third perspective.

Kennedy strikes both tender and humorous tones; her stories simultaneously address loss, desperation, and joy. The mood shifts between light and irreverent, and somber and contemplative.

In "Ashes," the major conflict is that Chris is unable to communicate with his mother, which leads to him bottling strong feelings of resentment and leaves him unable to be open about his sexual identity, which sabotages his romantic relationships.

In "Like a House on Fire," the major conflict is that the narrator slipped a disc in his back, and he's been unable to work or contribute around the house for sixteen weeks. His injury was supposed to heal in six weeks, and his wife now thinks the pain is psychosomatic.

In "Laminex and Mirrors," the major conflict is that the narrator has to choose between treating her job at the hospital as a means to an end toward traveling in Europe and actually investing in the people she works with and around, at the risk of losing the job.

In "Five-Dollar Family," the major conflict is that Michelle isn't sure if she can handle raising Jason on her own, despite the evidence that she has no choice.

In "Sleepers," the major conflict is that Ray feels powerless and stalled in his life, while an out-of-town developing company deprives the town of the redgum sleepers they tore up in the process of widening the roads.

The climax of "Ashes" is understated, and occurs when Chris scatters his father's ashes in the lake after his mother refuses to do it.

The climax of "Like a House on Fire" occurs when the tension releases between the narrator and Claire, and they lay on the living room floor side-by-side on Christmas morning, gazing at the glitter ground into the carpet.

The climax of "Laminex and Mirrors" is distinct; it occurs when the narrator and Mr. Moreton wheel down the main corridor of the hospital, throwing caution to the wind as they make their way back to Moreton's room.

The climax of "Five-Dollar Family" occurs when Michelle's let-down reflex kicks in after the second family portrait is snapped.

The climax of "Sleepers" occurs when Ray is arrested for trying to steal a trunk full of sleepers.

A moment of understatement occurs in "Ashes," when Chris wipes a smudge of his father's ashes off of his mother's lapel. Kennedy writes the moment as if the smudge were a spot of mustard, or a bit of dirt, but the significance of the material he's wiping off of her isn't lost on the reader.

In "Laminex and Mirrors," Kennedy alludes to the war song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" by having Mr. Moreton hum it as he and the narrator make their "last stand."

The imagery of the collection tends to hover in the domestic; Kennedy writes about the home, the suburbs, hospital settings, and rural Australia. In settings that resist domesticity, like the sterile environment of hospitals, Kennedy renders interstitial space and moments within the sterility that give it a warm life. For example, in her rendering of the abandoned Menzies ward in "Laminex and Mirrors," Kennedy carves out a space for Mr. Moreton to enjoy a hot bath beyond the hospital's institutional gaze.

An example of parallelism occurs in "Sleepers," as Ray's personal circumstances parallel the loss of agency of the town as a whole in the face of corporate development.

An example of personification occurs in "Like a House on Fire," when the narrator describes the bough that he slipped a disc while snipping as "errant" (81), a description that emphasizes his own perfectionism.