Analysis of Jim Stevens’s

Looking Beyond the House

Desperate loss and hopelessness fill so many homes. It is all too common to hear about a father walking out the door, a mother broken and defeated, and the children suffering through it all in fear and abandonment. Feelings such as these are found in Jim Stevens’ poem “Schizophrenia.” The poem shows the conflicts that exist within the house. However, the crisis that the family is experiencing is not expressed directly, but indirectly, through the house. By personifying the house in every aspect, “Schizophrenia” reveals the family’s relationships, or lack there of.

The poem is entitled, “Schizophrenia,” for what I believe are two reasons. The first is that the word “Schizophrenia” means “varying degrees of emotional or behavioral disturbances within one’s mind (OED/Perez, 4).” Obviously, the house is full of emotional and behavioral disturbances. The