We Were Liars

Houses have much symbolic value in the novel and come to mean so much for the aunts, as they fight over who should get which house. Clairmont is clearly the most important of the houses, since it is the seat of the patriarch and the target of the Liars' ire. Clairmont changes meaning over the course of the novel. It first signifies Harris's power over the family and comes to signify his effort to put his own past behind and to behave differently, now that his behavior has caused so much harm. Cuddledown is next in significance. It is where Cady came to love Gat and to bond with Johnny and Mirren. Further, it’s where she heals by imagining they have returned to Cady, and where she starts over with Gat. Cuddledown is really the amphitheater of her imagination, the place where she uses her memories of her friends to heal herself and to come to terms with what she has done. Changes to the house are important, such as the redecorating Cady and the Liars engage in and the final cleaning up that Cady does after she has finally recovered her lost memories.