Gender

Though Like a House on Fire uses the romance between Jane and Merit as a vessel for these explorations, the central premise of the novel involves a deep critique of patriarchy, gender, and the consequences of sexism for women in both domestic and career settings. McBrayer spends much of her novel examining the various indignities that Merit suffers both at home with her husband Cory and at work at Jager + Brandt as a means of articulating and emphasizing the difficulties that women face. Furthermore, the relationship between Jane and Merit, beyond constituting an engaging and passionate romance, also sustains itself on the mutuality of Jane and Merit's womanhood, emphasizing the importance of community and solidarity for women.

Although Merit herself often avoids categorizing her negative interactions with the men in her life as overt sexism, it remains the case that many of her circumstances are dictated...