"The Haunting of Hill House"

As we finish reading "The Haunting of Hill House," there are many questions that came up inside my head. One repeating question was whether the events of Hill House actually occurred or whether they were made up as part of Eleanor's fantasies. In the beginning, I thought maybe these events weren't real because as Eleanor was driving up to Hill House her imagination of having a family and creating scenarios in her head made me think that she wasn't mentally stable. I started questioning her sanity because she seemed too excited to leave her sister and start an adventure. I wondered if Hill House was actually real or if it was another made-up scenario in Eleanor's head and if she would just wake up from a dream at the end of the book. As the story progressed, I started to think that these events are actually happening because all of the members felt these fantastic events. The last piece of evidence which made me certain that these events were real is in the end when Eleanor went crashing into the tree and thought "Why am I doing this?" This line really stood out to me because at this instant she is thinking clearly and is also in the car which implies that maybe she had been possessed with a demon/ghost figure inside of her. I think the force which caused Eleanor to be comfortable in such a Gothic and gloomy setting is the force from the actual house. When Eleanor first approached the house, she was still sane but once she went into the house and stayed over, it seemed like she became a whole different person which was probably from the presence of the house. In the end as she crashed she suddenly started thinking clearer because she was driving away from the property therefore coming out of the force the house was placing on her.  

-Alice Lee