Playing House
Date
2024
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Haverford College. Department of English
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
Twenty-one-year-old Deepika is a romantic at heart, but so far, it seems like love is something that only works out in the movies. Time and time again, men’s failings have separated Deepika from her loved ones—most significantly, her sister, Chiara, who fled their broken home at eighteen and never looked back, and her college roommate, Sara, whose loyalty to a violent boyfriend drives the girls apart. From her family’s narrow escape from a violent father’s house, to her own midnight flight from her and Sara’s apartment, Deepika has gotten in the habit of keeping men at arm’s length by the time she meets Andrew: older, handsome, generous, well- settled and willing to give her everything she’d ever wanted out of not only a relationship, but out of life itself. After a picturesque meeting under city lights and a passionate night together, Deepika finds herself revitalized, reconnecting with Chiara over the phone and thinking about the future for the first time since graduating from college. But Deepika’s new, independent life in the city soon falls into chaos under Andrew’s touch, forcing Deepika closer and closer to him as nightmares of the past and the looming, uncertain future press in. “Playing House” is a story about freedom and futurity in young womanhood, set against a backdrop of masculine violence and psychological imprisonment. As Andrew becomes Deepika’s savior, her safety, and her lifeline, she sinks into a life and home with him as the outside world grows inhospitable and cold.