The Housemaid is Watching

The small room beneath the stairs in both the Accardis’ house and the Lowells’ house symbolizes the secrets that lurk on Locust Street, thus developing themes of The Danger of Family Secrets, Trust and Deception in Relationships, and Appearance Versus Reality in Suburban Communities. The small room in the Accardis’ house first appears obliquely: Millie hears a scraping noise in the night. Millie describes the noise as “horrible” and “terrible,” which foreshadows the depth of the evil that took place in the Lowells’ room. The noise alerts Millie that something is wrong with the house and the neighborhood, though she cannot identify where the sound comes from or what it means for her family.

When the room in the Accardis’ house is revealed, Millie realizes that Nico has been keeping secrets from her and using the room as his clubhouse. This is only the first of the secrets, however, and the most innocuous. Using the clubhouse is not indicative of Nico’s trauma on its own, but his use of the clubhouse in the middle of the night is unusual and a sign of the impact of the trauma on Nico’s psyche, which he keeps secret from his family.