52 pages • 1 hour read
Mark Z. DanielewskiHouse Of Leaves
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Appendix II-Appendix IIIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Summary: “Appendix II A. Sketches & Polaroids”
Before Appendix II A, the Editors note that Johnny provides the following material after the release of the first edition.
This section provides “Sketches & Polaroids” (568). The sketches show dark squares and staircases reminiscent of the house. Johnny also provides Polaroids of the houses he photographs on his trip through Virginia.
Summary: “Appendix II B. The Pelican Poems”
This section contains thirty-four poems, dated chronologically, from May 26, 1988 through August 12, 1990. The poems are often addressed to different women and contain the city where they were written, ranging across cities in Eastern and Western Europe. Almost all poems reference a Pelican, along with other allusions to Shakespeare, Greek mythology, and authors such as Proust and Hawthorne. The Pelican is often personified and sometimes named Jake.
Summary: “Appendix II C. Collages”
This section contains two collages containing various items related to the novel. For example, the first collage contains a diagram of Ground-Air Emergency Codes, which symbols are used as footnotes in the novel. The second collage contains a book of matches, like the ones used by Will in the hallway.
Summary: “Appendix II D. Obituary”
This section includes the obituary for Johnny’s father, Donnie, whose last name is omitted. We learn his father was born in Vermont and was a pilot. His license was revoked six months before he died due to a medical issue, and he became a truck driver. He dies when his Mack truck swerves into a ditch and catches fire.
Summary: “Appendix II E. The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute Letters”
This section comprises the letters written by Johnny’s mother, Pelafina, from The Three Attic Whalestoe Institute. They are dated from July 28, 1982 through May 3, 1989.
The early letters comment on Johnny’s plot: his foster homes, his fights, and his boarding schools. Pelafina praises him and focuses on her love for him.
Johnny writes back at times and visits, and Pelafina comments on her appreciation for this.
In August 1985, Pelafina’s mental condition seems to decline, and she feels she is “without ally,” and that the New Director is against her (606). However, her later letters reveal that it is the same director. She plans an escape because the Institute is “full of vipers and poisonous toads” (610). She also avoids her medications and attacks the director.
She begins encoding her letters to Johnny, and by June 1987, their forms begin to deviate. The text moves around the page, sometimes repeats the same word or phrase, or presents a list of seemingly unrelated words.
In November 1988, the letters become more direct, and Pelafina has “temporary clemency from rabid thoughts” (636). However, her condition deteriorates again, and she takes her own life on May 4, 1989. The news comes in the form of a letter from the director.
Summary: “Appendix II F. Various Quotes”
This section contains a variety of quotes from various authors, from Homer to Baudelaire to Simone Weil. They are written in English, Italian, French, Latin, Greek, and Old English. The same quote from Homer seems to appear in Ancient Greek, Italian, German, Russian, and French, though there is no translation. Some common themes of the quotes relate to houses, love, death, space, and absence.
Summary: “Appendix III”
This section contains “contrary evidence” in the form of five photographs (655). The first depicts the cover of a book, The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. The second is a page from a magazine depicting the rescue mission drawn as a cartoon. The third is a painting entitled “Another Great Hall on Ash Tree Lane.” The fourth is a conceptual model of the house. The last is a photograph entitled, “Man Looking In/Outward,” which is a still from Exploration #4. These are all artists’ renderings of elements of House of Leaves.
The last section of the novel, “Index,” includes an index of names and terms used throughout the text, along with page references.
Appendix II-Appendix III Analysis
These sections continue the textual pattern of mirroring. There are many echoes surrounding Johnny’s father, Donnie, in Appendix D. Donnie is born in Vermont, and the Navidsons eventually take up residence there. Donnie dies in auto accident, as does Lude. The collage in Appendix C contains ground-air emergency codes, which are inexplicably used as footnote symbols in the text. Donnie used to be a pilot, so there is resonance with the codes.
There is also mirroring and resonance among all of the letters. Throughout the text, Johnny writes to Thumper, and his footnotes also serve as a sort of letter writing to the important women in his life. As a mirror, the Appendices contain letters, which are all addressed to objects of devotion. The Pelican letters are each addressed to a different woman, and The Whalestoe letters are addressed to Johnny, the object of Pelafina’s affection. The idea of letter writing as an act of love gains resonance through the mirroring between the Appendices and main text.
Some of Pelafina’s actions also resonate with The Navidson Record. After Johnny visits, Pelafina “put pink ribbons in [her] hair” because she is so happy to have seen her son (599). Karen has pink ribbons in her hair after she is reunited with Will, the man she loves. Pelafina also notes, “I live at the end of some interminable corridor,” much like the hallway in The Navidson Record (624).
Pelafina’s letters also continue the theme of narrative instability. The reader cannot trust the reality of what she is portraying. At first, she insists that there is a new director, but later admits that it is the same director. Much like Johnny, she is an unreliable narrator. So, too, does the form of her letters break down like Zampanò’s text. The words move across the page diagonally or go upside down. Legibility is threatened, and thus the text becomes more and more unstable, and the reader can trust it less and less.
