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Julio Cortazars House Taken Over

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A Summary and Analysis of Julio Cortazar’s ‘House Taken Over’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘House Taken Over’ is a 1946 short story by the Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar (1914-84). In the story, a brother and sister living in a large house in Buenos Aires feel that their house is gradually being taken over by some mysterious intruders. Eventually, they decide they must leave the house.

Plot summary

The narrator of the story is a man who lives with his sister Irene in their big old house they inherited from their parents, who in turn inherited it from their grandparents. The house is large enough for eight people to have lived comfortably with enough space. The brother and sister are in their forties and have never married anyone, so they have settled into an unmarried life together in the house.

After they have spent the morning cleaning the house, they spend the rest of the time indulging in their hobbies: Irene spends her time knitting, while the narrator reads books, especially French literature. They earn money from the surrounding farms so have no financial worries.

The narrator tells us that he and his sister live in only part of the large house, and hardly ever venture into the rest of it except to clean it.

One evening, when he is going into the kitchen to make some tea, the narrator hears a noise coming from one of the other rooms. He goes back to his sister and tells her that ‘they’ have ‘taken over’ the back part of the house, and the two of them will have to live in the other part of the house to remain separate from these mysterious new inhabitants.

They find the first few days difficult because some of their possessions (including the narrator’s books) are in the other part of the house. On the plus side, cleaning is much easier with less of the house to clean.

After the day’s cleaning and cooking is completed, Irene can spend her time knitting, although the narrator regrets the loss of his books. He passed some of the time by rearranging their father’s stamp collection.

In the end, the narrator states that they both stopped thinking, but ‘you can live without thinking’. They both sleep in the same bed, with Irene disturbing her brother by talking in her sleep, and the narrator disturbing her by waving his arms about as he sleeps, shaking the blankets off the bed.

However, one night the noises elsewhere in the house become more pronounced, and brother and sister flee through the door and out into the vestibule of the house. ‘They’, the mysterious intruders, have now taken over the final section of the house. Irene’s knitting has got caught in the door, so she drops it, giving it up as lost.

All they have are the clothes they are wearing, with the narrator’s money back in the wardrobe in their bedroom.

They head out into the street together, the narrator locking the front door behind them and throwing the key down the drain, so somebody cannot get hold of it and attempt to rob the house. With the house taken over, that would not be advisable.

Cortázar’s story invites a number of different interpretations. It is worth bearing in mind the original context for the story: Cortázar wrote ‘House Taken Over’ in the mid-1940s, when his home country of Argentina was ruled by Juan and Eva Perón (she whose live was turned into the musical Evita ).

As Gabriela Nouzeilles and Graciela Montaldo observe in their prefatory note to the story in The Argentina Reader , the story can be analysed as a metaphor for Argentina at the time, with the ‘house’ being a symbol of the middle-class Argentinian home at this time.

This ‘house’ or ‘home’, then, is being ‘taken over’ by some unseen and indefinable presence, which, the editors note, can be interpreted as any ‘other’ which is feared by the comfortable bourgeoisie: the poor, the masses, those who are of mixed race, and so on.

The Peróns enjoyed huge popularity among the working classes of Argentina, and middle-class citizens like the narrator of ‘House Taken Over’ and his sister must have felt under threat in ways that were difficult to explain or pin down – much like the mysterious forces which appear to take over their house.

But the story ranges farther than its narrow political context. It can also be analysed as an example of ‘ the uncanny ’, that mood, or mode, theorised by Sigmund Freud in which the familiar and the unfamiliar sit uneasily alongside each other.

In ‘House Taken Over’, the unspecified ‘they’ who the narrator believes has ‘taken over’ part of the house (and will eventually take over all of it) are familiar enough to be referred to between brother and sister by a mere pronoun (‘they’ implies both of them have already identified their unwanted intruders), and yet strangely unfamiliar: if they have already identified the nature of their guests, they never reveal this information in the story itself.

‘They’, then, becomes at once a familiar and unfamiliar marker to describe those who have supposedly moved into the house. ‘They’ both requires no further definition and can command none, because, one suspects, the narrator and his sister do not know the precise identity of their interlopers.

Of course, it’s more than possible that there is no ‘they’ at all: the noises they hear elsewhere in the house, as anyone who has spent some time in a big house will attest, could well be the creaking of old floorboards, mice scuttling in the wainscot, or any number of other noises.

The narrator and his sister have little to occupy themselves, and largely spend their time indoors, so it’s even possible that Cortázar’s story is told by an unreliable narrator who is mentally unstable, having spent so long among the house’s four walls with increasingly few sources of intellectual nourishment (note that even before he lost access to his own books, he was bemoaning the lack of contemporary French literature in the local bookshop).

‘House Taken Over’ was the story which helped to make Cortázar famous throughout the Argentinian literary world. The story was published by Jorge Luis Borges , who was already established as one of the leading Argentine fiction writers of the age. Borges published Cortázar’s story in the journal he was editing at the time.

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Julio Cortazar: Short Stories

By julio cortazar, julio cortazar: short stories summary and analysis of "house taken over".

"House Taken Over" is narrated from the first-person perspective of an unnamed man who lives in his ancestral home in Argentina with his sister, Irene. Both of the siblings are "easing into" their forties and are unmarried and resigned to the idea that they will both grow old, unmarried, in this house together. The narrator begins by describing his and Irene's daily routine, which is synchronized and quite boring and unchanging—their days are occupied by chores to keep up the enormous house that they live in, which has much more space than is needed for two people. They take lunch at exactly noon every day, and afterwards, Irene knits. The narrator reads his beloved books (he favors French literature).

The narrator emphasizes Irene's predilection for knitting. He sees it as an excuse to do nothing at all. At the same time, he appreciates Irene's skill and her commitment to knitting all the time. She's a perfectionist, always searching for new patterns to master. When a garment she's knitting contains an imperfection, she will unravel it and start again. Once, the narrator finds a dresser full of garments gathering dust, enough to fill a shop with. The narrator doesn't have the heart to ask Irene what she expects to do with all the clothes. The fact that it's wasteful to buy more yarn and knit more clothes that no one will ever wear doesn't matter, because the siblings live off of income from their family farms. They take in more money than they can spend, and in this way they enjoy total financial freedom.

One day, as the narrator puts on a pot of water for tea, he hears a rustling on the other side of the house, which is connected to the kitchen by a large, mahogany door. The narrator recognizes the sound—"muted and indistinct, a chair being knocked over into the carpet or the muffled buzzing of a conversation" (13)—and rushes to slam and bolt locked the mahogany door. When he brings the tray of mate to his sister, he tells her, "I had to shut the door to the passage. They've taken over the back part" (13). Irene seems to know what he means by "they," and momentarily drops her knitting. They both tacitly accept that that side of the house is lost to them. Everything they left on that side—the narrator's books, Irene's slippers and stationary—is lost to them.

In a long parenthetical, the narrator describes the quietness of the house at night and how easily he awakes when Irene talks in her sleep. The house grows more tense after the mysterious squatters conquer its other half. After growing accustomed to living on "their" side of the house, one night, as the narrator is filling a glass of water before bed, he halts after hearing a commotion on their side of the house. Without hesitation, the narrator grabs his sister and they flee from the house. He locks the front door and throws the key into the sewer, concluding that "it wouldn't do to have some poor devil decide to go in and rob the house, at that hour and with the house taken over" (16).

In "House Taken Over," Cortázar explores what it means to inhabit a space. The narrator and his sister, Irene, live in their ancestral home in Argentina and neither of them work. The house, according to the narrator, could comfortably fit a family of eight, but instead, it's just him and his sister. Neither of them is married, neither is in the process of expanding the family, and so their inhabitance of the space marks a certain end to the family line. As the narrator points out, they are living "in a day when old houses go down for a profitable auction of their construction materials" (10). When they die, the narrator predicts that "obscure and distant cousins would inherit the place, have it torn down, sell the bricks and get rich on the building plot," and he suggests that the more just solution would be for him and his sister to "topple it" themselves (11). By all the narrator's calculations, before the takeover, the house would be dying with him and his sister, Irene.

The narrator emphasizes both his and his sister's lack of production (or in Irene's case, the redundant production of knitted garments) and the fact that neither of them ever really leave the house, so it is an unfortunate irony, given the fact that they could be characterized as hermits or shut-ins, that they are the target of some unidentified force driving them outside. The narrator says, "I think women knit when they discover that it's a fat excuse to do nothing at all," but he defends his sister's knitting, saying, "Irene was not like that, she always knitted necessities" (11). As for the narrator himself, he ventures outside more than Irene does, but only to pick up more yarn for her and to check with local bookstores to "uselessly [ask] if they had anything new in French literature" (11). The narrator's description of their circumstances emphasizes his and his sister's lack of use value; the only thing they actually do manage to affect is the state of the house's interior, which due to its size is constantly moving toward disorder. But even in their chores and upkeep, the narrator admits to ineffectuality. When talking about dusting, he says, "the motes rise and hang in the air, and settle again a minute later on the pianos and the furniture" (13).

When the house is breached the first time and the intruders take over half the house on the other side of the mahogany door, there is no discussion of recourse between the narrator and Irene. They don't consider retaliation or calling authorities or anything like that. They simply consider that side of the house and everything in it totally lost to them. The ambiguity of the intruders and their identity leaves a vacuum of meaning in "House Taken Over." In other words, by not explicitly identifying the intruders one way or another, Cortázar leaves the story widely open to interpretation by the reader. The reader can map any number of forces onto the narrator and his sister losing their family home. It could be seen as a political force, a class uprising, or a foray into magical realism.

The takeover of the house certainly is not logical or realistic in itself, given that the bathroom is accessible from both sides of the house. The intruders do not seem to be aggressively trying to breach the other side of the house; it's just that one day, they simply are there . If these were aggressive conquerors, they would likely knock down doors and walls until they had control of the entire house. The slow progression of the takeover seems to suggest something less familiar to our world. On the other hand, the narrator and Irene seem to fear the takers-over as if they were some kind of violent force that could not be safely confronted or reasoned with. And when the narrator, upon finally vacating the house for good, locks the front door and throws the keys in the sewer, he suggests that he wouldn't wish an encounter with the new inhabitants on burglars. So, there is clearly an element of danger attached to the takers-over, but the danger remains undefined. The danger could possibly serve as an analogy for the fascist regimes active and sweeping across Europe and South America throughout the twentieth century, but there is scant textual proof that maps any particular threat to the intrusion.

One thing is clear about the intruders: they define the narrator and his sister Irene's existence in the house. Their inhabitance means nothing until the encroaching invasion provides it some textural relief. The entire story of their inhabitance of the house comes down to their eventual forced eviction from it, which seems to be a commentary on class and inheritance. With no need to earn and no connection to the sources of their income—the farms that no doubt operate on the backs of laborers who need to work in order to survive—Irene and the narrator struggle to occupy themselves. Irene occupies herself with knitting, which the narrator exposes as redundant and quite wasteful when he finds most of her garments gathering dust in an old dresser, and the narrator occupies himself with books and cooking lunches. Their ineffectual occupation of themselves and their house gives way to new occupants, who emit a "buzzing of conversation" (13) through its rooms.

Julio Cortazar: Short Stories Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Julio Cortazar: Short Stories is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

By loading the beginning of the story with such explicit musings on the art and craft of writing and the function of storytelling, Cortázar bares his themes for the reader to plainly see. Perspective is an important theme of "Blow-Up," as is...

House Taken Over

From the first few paragraph's, we can infer that the house is a great family home, passed down from one generation to the next. It is old, well constructed, and spacious.

The setting in House Taken Over is a large family home, which connects to the magical realism model because the plot can only be advance by using supernatural events.

Study Guide for Julio Cortazar: Short Stories

Julio Cortazar: Short Stories study guide contains a biography of Julio Cortazar, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Julio Cortazar: Short Stories
• Julio Cortazar: Short Stories Summary
• Character List

Essays for Julio Cortazar: Short Stories

Julio Cortazar: Short Stories essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Julio Cortazar: Short Stories.

• The Distinction Between Wishing and Wanting: "The Island at Noon"
• Subjective Reality In “Blow-Up”
• The Dimensions of Fear: Impacting the Reader in "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "House Taken Over"

Lesson Plan for Julio Cortazar: Short Stories

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Julio Cortazar: Short Stories
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Julio Cortazar: Short Stories Bibliography

House Taken Over

Julio cortázar, everything you need for every book you read..

The story’s narrator lives with his sister, Irene , in their family’s home. The house is large enough to hold at least eight people, but the siblings live alone because neither ever married. Together they keep a firm schedule, rising early to clean the dust that continually gathers in the giant house, especially in the larger communal rooms at the back of the building. In the evenings, the narrator reads French literature, and his sister knits all kinds of useful garments, though she produces more than the two could ever wear. Irene never seems to leave the house, but the narrator runs into town occasionally on Saturdays to buy her new skeins of wool and to check the bookstore for new French books.

One night, when the narrator gets out of bed to make some tea, he hears a peculiar, muffled sound in the rear rooms. Believing an invading force has taken over the back of the house, he closes the door separating it from the front bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom.

The siblings agree they will live in the front rooms only, and their home and life seems to shrink even further. At first, they miss the belongings they left in the lost portion of the house, but they adjust quickly. They no longer need to clean and they complete all their cooking in the morning, so they have little to do for most of the day. The narrator spends most of his evenings watching Irene knit. Their routine becomes so streamlined that they no longer need to think in order to survive, and they rarely speak; they merely exist, quietly. At night, the only sounds come from Irene’s sleep-talking and the narrator’s tossing and turning.

This simplistic, dismal existence appears as though it will continue indefinitely until the narrator gets up for a glass of water one night. Like before, he hears an odd sound, but this time in the front portion of the house. Irene notices that her brother has frozen in the hallway and gets up to listen with him. When the two are sure the mysterious presence is in either the kitchen or bathroom and coming closer, they run together to the vestibule , locking the entrance door behind them. Only then do they realize they have left with nothing but their clothing. Irene’s knitting is caught in the door and cannot be rescued, and the narrator recalls with dismay the 15,000 pesos he left in his dresser. Still, they refuse to go back into the house, instead abandoning it forever. The narrator sees on his wristwatch that it is 11pm, then he and a weeping Irene walk off into the night.

Jotted Lines

A Collection Of Essays

House Taken Over – Analysis

Julio Cortazar’s ‘‘House Taken Over’’ is a brief but carefully constructed tale. It is particularly noteworthy for what it does and does not reveal. The narrator’s attention to mundane detail is astounding, particularly when seen as a contrast to the details that remain unaddressed. This lack of seemingly important description lends the story an ambiguity that allows for numerous interpretations. In this sense, the story itself becomes as spacious as the house in which it is set. Certainly, despite its brevity, the plethora of critical interpretations of ‘‘House Taken Over’’ illustrates that it is a story potentially filled with ideas. For instance, Neophilologus contributor Amanda Holmes notes in her explication that ‘‘some of the most prominent analyses of this story by literary scholars see the experience of Cortazar’s characters as similar to that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden … a baby in the mother’s womb … excrement in the intestines of the body … or the bourgeois elite in Peronist Argentina.’’ 

The more allegorical interpretations, such as those listed above, tend to focus on the final act of expulsion as it occurs in the story. More involved readings, though, focus on the conditions that bring the expulsion about. Namely, those conditions are the siblings’ malaise and isolation. The siblings repeat the same day over and over: waking at the same time, cleaning the house, eating lunch at noon, and then spending their respective leisure times reading old books or pointlessly knitting. Even the siblings’ chaste marriage is a fruitless endeavor. To most, it would seem that Irene and the narrator are living in a self-constructed purgatory, yet they are perfectly content. As Malva E. Filer states in Books Abroad: ‘‘In Cortazar’s fictional world this kind of routine life is the great scandal against which every individual must rebel with all his strength. And if he is not able or willing to do so, extraordinary elements are usually summoned to force him out of this despicable and abject comfort.’’ Certainly, this is the case in ‘‘House Taken Over,’’ as the mysterious ‘‘they’’ drive the siblings away. 

Marta Morello-Frosch, also writing in Books Abroad, discusses the adept use of understatement that pervades the story. For example, she finds that ‘‘there is no editorial comment on the events narrated … no matter how bizarre they may be.’’ While this remarkable reticence leaves the reader to speculation, it is also a hallmark of the magical realist style. Still, the narrator’s and Irene’s reticence is germane. Not only do they avoid commenting on their situation, they also avoid acting on it. Morello-Frosch adds that ‘‘there is often a great effort on the part of the characters toward trivializing the extraordinary or bestial events they are called upon to endure.’’ In addition, Irene and the narrator continue their lives as if nothing has happened. Certainly, as Morello-Frosch comments, ‘‘they insist on trying to keep up an appearance of routine in the presence of ‘the beast’ which may lie within them or haunt them without even making itself visible.’’ Even the narrator seems to indicate as much when he declares, ‘‘We were fine, and little by little we stopped thinking. You can live without thinking.’’ The siblings begin to have trouble sleeping. This small detail seems to indicate that things are not quite as normal as the characters pretend. 

Yet another interpretation describes ‘‘House Taken Over’’ as a work of metafiction, that is, a fictional story about fiction. Holmes finds this to be the case given the mysterious elusiveness of the invasive ‘‘they.’’ For instance, she states: ‘‘These unidentified subjects represent Cortazar’s perception of fiction as a language that reaches beyond conventional communication.’’ She adds, ‘‘Without a specific referent, the ‘they’ or the ‘he/it’ remain in the realm of the language of fiction for the reader. Cortazar creates a sense of the unnamed entities for the reader, ushering in an uneasy aura surrounding them. The reader empathizes with the characters who obviously fear…these beings without stable referents.’’ A metafictional interpretation here is entirely apt given the work’s literary/historical context. Cortazar’s literary benefactor, Jorge Luis Borges, was a metafictional writer. In addition, aspects of magical realism owe their heritage to the style. 

Returning to the idea of the narrator’s and Irene’s self-constructed purgatory, Holmes finds that the siblings’ expulsion can be traced in terms of the clash between the colonial and postcolonial world. For instance, the siblings insist on living in a colonial world despite the fact that Argentina is a postcolonial country. The house itself is a strong indicator of this. It is European in construction: a large sprawling manor with numerous wings. However, it is also antiquated. Too big for its purpose, it stands mainly to oversee the final days of the family line. As the narrator points out, the home is such an antique that the parts are worth more than the whole. Most of the other buildings like it have been broken apart and sold piece by piece for their architectural embellishments. In Holmes’s interpretation, then, the narrator’s abundant descriptions of the house (and the work conducted to maintain it) seem far more significant than they initially seem. Holmes remarks: ‘‘As the vehicle for nostalgia, the architectural styles of the fictional buildings come to represent divisions between past and present, as well as between private and public space. The imposition … of some inexplicable Other on the individual residence probes the concept of home … underscoring the inescapability of the city’s impact on the lives of its inhabitants and questioning the nature of the walls, both architectural and linguistic, that separate Self from Other.’’ 

In other words, the house (representing the past) separates the siblings from the city (representing the present). Holmes goes on to state exactly that, finding that ‘‘although at home in this limited space, the siblings seclude themselves from the contemporary experience of the city. As a result, they live as outsiders surrounded by a city that understands a modern reality very different from theirs.’’ Thus, ‘‘it is this city that finally expels them from their home.’’ This thematic interpretation is one of the more salient, particularly when one examines key textual clues, such as the architectural style of the home, its location, and the direction from which the mysterious ‘‘they’’ overtake the house. For instance, ‘‘the connection between the fictional architecture of the home and that of the real Buenos Aires of the time-period, as well as the location of the home in the city create a caricature of the contemporary urban political scene,’’ Holmes finds. She also states that ‘‘the authority that controls the siblings supernaturally haunts their private space, scaring away the unproductive urban elite. As this scenario parodies a Peronist Buenos Aires, it also underscores Latin American debates concerning the role of Europe in post-colonial space.’’ Put simply, the siblings’ leisurely lives, financed by the labors of tenant farmers on their land holdings, are part of a colonial lifestyle that has since grown antiquated. Like the house, the siblings’ very lives are relics. Modernity and progress will ultimately overtake them. This, then, is another aspect of the mysterious voices that force the siblings from their home. 

As previously mentioned, the actual location of the house is also important. The narrator notes that the library abuts the Rodrı´guez Pen˜a, an actual street in Buenos Aires. Holmes writes that ‘‘the named street runs behind the house, as if the building sought to conceal its actual location, for the reader never discovers the name of the street that would give the house its official address.’’ The detail does place the house in a fairly concrete geographical location. More importantly, it also places the house’s location in a historical context that adds further meaning to the story’s events. The street’s namesake was a soldier who fought for Argentina’s independence from Britain. This detail further underscores the postcolonial implications in ‘‘House Taken Over.’’ The street’s location at the back of the house is also remarkable given that, as Holmes points out, ‘‘the invading Other moves from the back to the front of the house, or from the section that locates the story in the ‘real’ Buenos Aires outside the text to the part that remains anonymous and must be imagined without any ‘real’ referent.’’ ‘‘Buenos Aires intrudes into the siblings’ Europeanized [not to mention fictionalized] haven.’’ 

Sara Constantakis, Thomas E. Barden – Short Stories for Students – Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories, vol. 28 (2010) – Julio Cartazar – Published by Gale Cengage Learning.

Leah Tieger, Critical Essay on ‘‘House Taken Over,’’ in Short Stories for Students, Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010.

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• The Fall of the House of Usher: Themes

Comparative Essay Example: The Fall of the House of Usher and House Taken Over

When reading a piece of literature there could be any type of mood. In two stories “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “House Taken Over” there were two very different moods. The connotations of each of these stories make each reader express a different feeling. In the story by Edgar Allen Poe “The Fall of the House of Usher”, we are introduced to Gothic literature. The story by Julio Cortazar, “House Taken Over”, we find Magical Realism. Even though the moods of these two stories are diverse they do have some similarities along with their differences. 

Gothic literature is a literary genre that began in England in the late 1700’s. This style refers to medieval times which were represented by being dark and gloomy. The story “The Fall of the House of Usher” was a piece of Gothic literature. In this story a brother, Rodrick Usher, and sister are both near death living in an eerie old house. Poe states in, “The Fall of the House of Usher” that “I know not how it was--but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit” (Poe 1). That evidence shows that the whole setting of this story is creepy and gloomy. Another example of this story being Gothic Literature is in paragraph 45 through 46 it exclaims “A sickly smile quivered about his lips; and I saw that he spoke low, hurried, and gibbering murmur, as if unconscious of my presence,” it then goes on to say, “We have put her living in the tomb.” These quotes are explaining how the brother in this story, Rodrick Usher, buried his sister alive. The effect this story has on the reader is appalling and intriguing at the same time. This story draws readers into the plot with use of words of a scary connotation to keep them wanting more. 

Magical realism is a literary genre closely related with some Latin American twentieth century authors. It came to terms as fantasy and reality that adds some unrealistic elements to real life. In “House Taken Over” there are many elements that make it a good example of Magical Realism. This story is what happens to a brother and sister spending their lives in a house together. In this short story it quotes, “We rose at seven in the morning and got the cleaning done, and about eleven I left Irene to finish off whatever rooms and went to the kitchen” (Cortazar 2).  This clearly shows the reality in the story because this happens all the time in everyday life. The next element expressed in the story is supernatural and unreal. In paragraph six of Cortazar's “House Taken Over” it states, “The sound came through muted and indistinct, a chair being knocked over onto the carpet or the muffled buzzing of a conversation.” This fantasy in this story is what makes it a good example of magical realism. The effect this story gives the reader is a mix between fiction and nonfiction, which makes the piece of literature enjoyable to read. 

Despite the different connotations of these stories, both stories have the same original storyline. Both “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “House Taken Over” there is a set of siblings, both sister and brother. The two pairs both live in old spacious houses that their family passed down to them. In “The Fall of the House of Usher” it quotes, “House of Usher--an appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family mansion” (Poe 3). Also in “House Taken Over” it says, “...simple marriage of sister and brother was the indispensable end to a line established in this house by our grandparents” (Corazar 2). These two pieces of evidence show how these two pieces are similar. 

In conclusion, in “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “House Taken Over” there are two very different moods. Each story has its own connotation that it gives its reader. Poe’s story, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, introduces us to Gothic literature. In the story by Cortazar, “House Taken Over”, we find Magical Realism. Both stories are perfect examples of their literature type. Although the moods of these two stories are different, their stories are comparable.

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What is the difference between a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse?

It almost time! Millions of Americans across the country Monday are preparing to witness the once-in-a-lifetime total solar eclipse as it passes over portions of Mexico, the United States and Canada.

It's a sight to behold and people have now long been eagerly awaiting what will be their only chance until 2044 to witness totality, whereby the moon will completely block the sun's disc, ushering in uncharacteristic darkness.

That being said, many are curious on what makes the solar eclipse special and how is it different from a lunar eclipse.

The total solar eclipse is today: Get the latest forecast and everything you need to know

What is an eclipse?

An eclipse occurs when any celestial object like a moon or a planet passes between two other bodies, obscuring the view of objects like the sun, according to NASA .

What is a solar eclipse?

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon comes in between the Earth and the sun, blocking its light from reaching our planet, leading to a period of darkness lasting several minutes. The resulting "totality," whereby observers can see the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere, known as the corona, presents a spectacular sight for viewers and confuses animals – causing nocturnal creatures to stir and bird and insects to fall silent.

Partial eclipses, when some part of the sun remains visible, are the most common, making total eclipses a rare sight.

What is a lunar eclipse?

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon and the sun are on exact opposite sides of Earth. When this happens, Earth blocks the sunlight that normally reaches the moon. Instead of that sunlight hitting the moon’s surface, Earth's shadow falls on it.

Lunar eclipses are often also referred to the "blood moon" because when the Earth's shadow covers the moon, it often produces a red color. The coloration happens because a bit of reddish sunlight still reaches the moon's surface, even though it's in Earth's shadow.

Difference between lunar eclipse and solar eclipse

The major difference between the two eclipses is in the positioning of the sun, the moon and the Earth and the longevity of the phenomenon, according to NASA.

A lunar eclipse can last for a few hours, while a solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes. Solar eclipses also rarely occur, while lunar eclipses are comparatively more frequent. While at least two partial lunar eclipses happen every year, total lunar eclipses are still rare, says NASA.

Another major difference between the two is that for lunar eclipses, no special glasses or gizmos are needed to view the spectacle and one can directly stare at the moon. However, for solar eclipses, it is pertinent to wear proper viewing glasses and take the necessary safety precautions because the powerful rays of the sun can burn and damage your retinas.

Contributing: Eric Lagatta, Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

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Solar eclipse 2024: Follow the path of totality

Solar eclipse myths and rumors bubble up, from radiation to food poisoning.

Bill Chappell

People visit a NASA information booth to grab solar eclipse glasses in Russellville, Arkansas. The space agency has debunked a number of myths about the total solar eclipse — including ideas about food going bad, or unborn babies being harmed. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

People visit a NASA information booth to grab solar eclipse glasses in Russellville, Arkansas. The space agency has debunked a number of myths about the total solar eclipse — including ideas about food going bad, or unborn babies being harmed.

Will a solar eclipse harm a pregnant woman's baby if she looks at it? Does an eclipse emit special radiation that can instantly blind you?

Those are some of the ideas people have been asking about — and that experts have been pooh-poohing — as people in North America anticipated seeing a total eclipse, from Mazatlán to Montreal.

Here's what time the eclipse will be visible in your region

Monday's total solar eclipse begins over Mexico's Pacific Coast at around 11:07 a.m. PT, moving east through Texas and up to Maine, finally leaving the continent on Newfoundland's Atlantic coast.

Solar eclipses have long triggered fanciful explanations and warnings, from religious mythology to modern-day superstition. In recent days, for instance, a message circulated online warning people to turn off their cellphones and other devices before midnight ahead of the eclipse, warning of powerful radiation and cosmic rays.

In reality, a solar eclipse brings a temporary sharp drop in solar radiation — an event that ham radio operators have been eagerly anticipating for months, with competitions and experiments looking to fill the Earth's suddenly radiation-free ionosphere with radio signals.

Persistent but unfounded beliefs even prompted NASA to devote a special page to debunking misconceptions about a solar eclipse.

Total eclipses don't produce rays that cause blindness, NASA says

During totality, electromagnetic radiation from the sun's corona will not harm you. In fact, the only time it's safe to look at the sun without eye protection, as the sun's brightness is fully obscured by the moon and its corona is visible.

But outside of totality, your eyes can be harmed during an eclipse. If the sun is only partially obscured, looking at it will damage your retina. You can look if you have special solar glasses, but don't count on those to protect you if you want to use a telescope or camera lens that doesn't have a solar filter.

As NASA says , "the concentrated solar rays will burn through the filter and cause serious eye injury."

Another thing to remember: Take breaks if you're using a special filter to look at the sun before or after totality. As the space agency says , the sun's infrared radiation can make you uncomfortable, "as it literally warms the eye."

You should look away from the sun periodically, or use an indirect viewer like a pinhole projector to track the eclipse.​

More things NASA says are NOT true about a total solar eclipse

Myth: if you are pregnant you should not watch an eclipse because it can harm your baby..

Another notion that seems to be rooted in concern about radiation. To put people's mind at ease, NASA employs a sort of "you're already soaking in it" example, citing the neutrino particles produced by the sun's nuclear fusion:

"Every second, your body is pelted by trillions of these neutrinos no matter if the sun is above or below the horizon. The only consequence is that every few minutes a few atoms in your body are transmuted into a different isotope by absorbing a neutrino. This is an entirely harmless effect and would not harm you, or if you are pregnant, the developing fetus."

MYTH: Eclipses will poison any food that is prepared during the event.

NASA gives a hypothetical: What if some bad potato salad makes people sick during an eclipse? Food poisoning is very common — and it shouldn't be blamed on a rare celestial event, the agency notes.

"The basic idea is that total solar eclipses are terrifying and their ghostly green coronae look frightening, so it is natural to want to make up fearful stories about them and look for coincidences among events around you."

Other myths have to do with omens and major events

Here are four that NASA singles out for debunking:

MYTH: Eclipses are harbingers of something very bad about to happen.

Myth: solar eclipses foretell major life changes and events about to happen., myth: solar eclipses are a sign of an exceptional celestial event taking place in time and space., myth: solar eclipses six months after your birthday, or on your birthday, are a sign of impending bad health..

NASA ascribes many of these ideas to astrological forecasts being propped up by confirmation bias.

As the agency says, "We tend to remember all the occasions when two things happened together, but forget all of the other times when they did not."

Other myths — such as the idea that the moon turns black during an eclipse, or that the Earth's two poles don't see eclipses — are simply false, the agency says.

Eclipses have deep spiritual meanings

Ideas about an eclipse's potentially powerful effects aren't new. In fact, solar eclipses do also cause some unusual things to happen .

Want to see how a solar eclipse alters colors? Wear red and green on Monday

People in totality can expect to feel a sudden drop in temperature, for instance. Stars and planets become visible in the middle of the day, and humans can experience a range of odd visual effects — from the sharpness of shadows to the movement of "shadow bands" and a change in how we perceive color.

Then there's the eerie effect of the eclipse moving from west to east, adding to the perception that time isn't moving in its normal path.

Many cultures and religions link eclipses to energy, seeing them as events of renewal and promise — or in some cases, of vital energy being drained away.

For the Ojibwe and other Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region, a story about a solar eclipse centers on a boy and his sister who trap the sun after it burns him.

In many folktales, magical animals try to eat the sun or the moon. In Hindu mythology, a serpent god, Rahu Ketu, wanted to eat the sun — but then his head was cut off. That created two new entities, Rahu and Ketu, according to the Folklife Today blog from the Library of Congress.

"These are the deities of eclipses and comets. Rahu is fixated on eating the sun and the moon, and will try to catch them and gobble them up," the blog notes. "Fortunately he only succeeds once in a while. Since his head was cut off, the sun or moon just falls out the hole where his neck used to be. This is an eclipse."

As Folklife Today notes, in many cultures, humans take up the duty of ending an eclipse, often by making noise and beating on drums or gongs to dispel the spirit that's attempting to take the sun.

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NATO Weighs Taking Over U.S.-Led Group Directing Ukraine Military Aid

The proposal faces several obstacles, including whether all members would agree to the changes. But the alliance is worried about wavering American support for Kyiv.

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By Lara Jakes

Lara Jakes writes about weapons and military aid to Ukraine.

With continued American aid to Ukraine stalled and the looming prospect of a second Trump presidency, NATO’s top diplomat said on Wednesday that the alliance was poised to take more control over military support sent to Ukraine — a role that the United States has played for the past two years.

Details are still being worked out, but Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, said foreign ministers meeting in Brussels agreed to pursue plans to give the military alliance more oversight in coordinating security assistance and training for Ukraine.

Should the plan comes to fruition, it would represent a shift from NATO’s previous reluctance to be pulled more directly into the conflict and risk a severe military response from President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. And it is not certain that NATO’s most powerful member, the United States, ultimately will agree to a measure that could dilute its influence.

But Mr. Stoltenberg said it was necessary to ensure that Ukraine could rely on NATO for years to come in a war with no immediate end in sight.

“The Ukrainians are not running out of courage — they’re running out of ammunition,” Mr. Stoltenberg said at NATO headquarters. “We need to step up now and ensure our support is built to last.”

He echoed impatience across the alliance with the United States’ delay in sending Ukraine a $60 billion aid package that congressional Republicans have stalled for six months. “We have a responsibility as NATO allies to take the decisions, and to ensure that the Ukrainians get the ammunition they must have, to be able to continue to push back the Russian invaders,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “So it is urgent that the United States make a decision.”

One measure discussed at Wednesday’s meetings, officials said, would bring the Ukraine Defense Contact Group under NATO’s control. The group is currently led by the United States, and coordinates the donation and delivery of weapons to Ukraine’s battlefields.

Discussions are also underway about a plan floated by Mr. Stoltenberg to secure an additional $100 billion from the alliance’s 32 member states for Ukraine over five years. He called it obvious “that we need new and more money for Ukraine, and we need it over many years.” He added that he hoped to have final agreements by a July summit meeting of NATO leaders in Washington, where officials are expected to continue debating when Ukraine will be allowed to join the military alliance, as has been promised for years.

The United States and Germany insist that the government in Kyiv must make democratic and security reforms before it can become an alliance member. And few leaders are willing to bring Ukraine into the fold before the war with Russia is settled.

A NATO official confirmed the proposals, which were reported earlier by news outlets including Bloomberg News , but passage is by no means assured.

A second NATO official said that Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has maintained warm relations with Russia , opposed the effort to put the Defense Contact Group under the alliance’s oversight. And several allies have questioned how NATO would be able to raise the $100 billion when it has no leverage over member states, the official said. Both NATO officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details of the plans have not been publicly released.

Biden administration officials also appeared dubious, although Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken did not publicly discuss the proposal to relinquish American leadership of the Defense Contact Group during remarks with Mr. Stoltenberg. A White House spokesman was careful not to say whether it would be supported or opposed in Washington.

The group of about 50 countries and international organizations “is bigger than NATO, it’s bigger than the alliance,” said John Kirby, a National Security Council spokesman. “And what brought them together was American leadership.”

Washington’s support for Ukraine has wavered in recent months, though the House speaker, Mike Johnson, is now expected to seek Republican approval for a version of the $60 billion aid package next week. The delay has infuriated Kyiv, irritated allies and prompted Mr. Stoltenberg to declare on Wednesday that it “has consequences” on the battlefield, where Ukraine’s forces are running out of artillery and air defense systems as Russia gains ground along the front line.

Concern is also growing among NATO allies over the possible re-election in November of former President Trump, who in the past has vowed to withdraw the United States from the military alliance and recently threatened not to defend Europe if it were under attack . Mr. Stoltenberg sidestepped a question on Wednesday about Mr. Trump, but said that “you need long-term planning” for NATO to continue supporting Ukraine.

In the two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine , the United States has led an effort to funnel more than $88 billion in weapons and security assistance to Kyiv through the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which usually meets at an American air base in Ramstein, Germany. In addition to the NATO members, the group includes major allied nations, like Australia, Japan and South Korea.

It is not clear how the NATO alliance would work with nonmember states. But Mr. Stoltenberg noted that NATO states provide 99 percent of the military aid that Ukraine receives.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, is scheduled to meet top NATO diplomats at headquarters on Thursday, the official 75th anniversary of the military alliance that was created at the start of the Cold War in a collective security pact against the Soviet Union.

Its latest member is Sweden, which abandoned decades of nonalignment after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Sweden joined the alliance formally last month, and Wednesday was the first time its foreign minister, Tobias Billström, joined the diplomatic discussions as a full NATO member.

Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.

Lara Jakes , based in Rome, reports on diplomatic and military efforts by the West to support Ukraine in its war with Russia. She has been a journalist for nearly 30 years. More about Lara Jakes

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, met in Beijing . The visit came days after the United States threatened new sanctions against Chinese companies if they aided Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has condemned recent drone strikes at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant , saying “such reckless attacks significantly increase the risk of a major nuclear accident.”

Russian rockets slammed into residential buildings in Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said, killing at least seven people and injuring at least 11 more in the latest assault on Ukraine’s second-largest city .

Conditional Support: Ukraine wants a formal invitation to join NATO, but the alliance has no appetite for taking on a new member  that would draw it into the biggest land war in Europe since 1945.

‘Shell Hunger’: A desperate shortage of munitions in Ukraine  is warping tactics and the types of weapons employed, and what few munitions remain are often mismatched with battlefield needs.

Turning to Marketing: Ukraine’s troop-starved brigades have started their own recruitment campaigns  to fill ranks depleted in the war with Russia.

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .

After my parents died and I lost my job, I moved out of my hometown and swore I'd never go back. But returning home helped me heal.

• After my parents' deaths and other failures, I decided to move to California and follow my dreams.
• I was able to start the life I always wanted, but then I had to return home for an emergency. 
• I learned I didn't have to run from my hometown or my past issues to heal properly.

Early on Independence Day, 2017, I visited my adult son's house to say goodbye, and then I hit the road.

Having been laid off after a 25-year career and recovering from severe and debilitating depression, I was running away from everything that didn't work out in my hometown in Iowa. The list was long: marriage, sustainable romantic relationships, emotional mastery, financial prowess, and health. Plus, I was grieving the deaths of my parents.

I wasn't concerned about my "failures," though. I was laser-focused on creating a new reality in California. I had the joy, excitement, and unshakable belief that I could be anything I wanted and my new life could be completely different than the one I stepped away from. I was certain my hometown was limiting me, and my future could be as bright as I chose.

With Jo Dee Messina's "Bye-Bye" blaring and the only belongings I chose to keep filling my SUV, I set out to start a new life in California.

At 46, I was leaving Des Moines, Iowa, and vowed never to return.

I quickly created a new reality and had no desire to go back to my old life

Back home in Iowa, I often retreated to codependency, fawning, and self-abandonment; those habits were survival mechanisms for me. Particularly with family members, I always felt like I had a certain role to fulfill, which meant putting other people's needs above mine.

But my priorities changed on the west coast. The sunshine, the mountains, and all the activities in California inspired me. I built my business as an entrepreneur , established collaborations, and developed cherished friendships in various communities.

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While I didn't know it at the time, my move to California was an opportunity to heal the trauma I experienced and address the seemingly endless amount of limiting beliefs that held me back.

They say you can't heal in the same environment that made you sick, and I could see how that was true for me. Because I was learning to fulfill my needs and become my own person, I felt it was easier to stay away from home and all its traumas — and instead focus solely on taking care of myself .

Then I got a call that brought me home

Seven years after I made the move, I got one of "those" calls — a call that comes out of the blue and delivers heartbreaking news you'd never expect.

Imagine my surprise when that unexpected set of circumstances and events led me to consider returning to Iowa for a short trip . When I told one of my Iowa friends I was coming home, she said, "You didn't really think you could heal all the way without returning to the 515 (the Des Moines area code), did you?"

A few days later, I was on my way home, nervous I would fall back into my old ways and re-experience my trauma .

But while spending time with friends and family in Iowa, I had a startling realization: While life in California is good and serves me well, it's still just as imperfect as my life in Iowa was. I'm still me but in a different place, which helped me open my heart up to Iowa in a new way.

My former self believed I had to run away to heal and find happiness .

But my more healed self now knows it's essential to accept, love, and integrate the imperfect pieces of my life. Instead of running from the imperfections or trying to eliminate them, I embraced my humanity, became more accepting, and appreciated the parts my "failures" played in my story.

Being back in the 515 was the ultimate integration. It was a nervous system reset — nourishing in ways I didn't expect. I slept soundly, danced with reckless abandon, laughed heartily, ate joyfully, and easily digested all the experiences.

Based on this, I won't be afraid to return to my original home — and even stay for a while.

Watch: Rikers Island is one of the world's most notorious jails — here's what it's actually like

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X has received an inquiry from the US House of Representatives regarding actions taken in Brazil which were in violation of Brazilian law, Elon Musk said on Wednesday in a post on the social media platform.

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Mike Johnson faces revolt by hard-right Republicans over Ukraine aid package

Some House members remain staunchly opposed to proposal and one of them has already threatened to oust the speaker

House speaker Mike Johnson returns to work on Monday facing mounting pressure to advance a Ukraine aid package as well as the threat of an intra-party revolt if he does so.

The Republican speaker has indicated the House will take up the issue of Ukraine funding this week, as the chamber reconvenes after a two-week recess. But many hard-right members of Johnson’s conference remain staunchly opposed to additional Ukraine aid, and one of them has already threatened to oust the speaker, complicating the potential timing of a floor vote.

As the House adjourned last month, Johnson vowed that the chamber would soon “take the necessary steps to address the supplemental funding request”, which includes money for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The Senate passed a $95bn foreign aid package in February, but Johnson indicated that the House would consider an amended proposal when members return to Washington.

“We’ve been talking to all the members, especially now over the district work period,” Johnson told Fox News last Sunday. “When we return after this work period, we’ll be moving a product, but it’s going to, I think, have some important innovations.”

Those innovations might include sending money to Kyiv as a loan or redirecting Russian assets seized under the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (Repo) for Ukrainians Act. But even those changes are unlikely to sway the most vocal Ukraine skeptics in the House Republican conference, such as congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Before the House adjourned last month, Greene introduced a motion to remove Johnson as speaker in protest of the passage of a large government funding package, but she stopped short of forcing a vote on the matter. Speaking to CNN on Wednesday, Greene suggested she may soon push for a vote on Johnson’s ouster if he moves forward with a Ukraine aid bill.

“I’m not saying I have a red line or a trigger, and I’m not saying I don’t have a red line or trigger,” Greene said. “But I’m going to tell you right now: funding Ukraine is probably one of the most egregious things that he can do.”

Even as Johnson faces a challenge from the hard-right flank of his conference, other House Republicans insist the chamber must take action to assist Ukraine. They warn that further inaction, after months of ignoring the White House’s demands to approve more funding, will only embolden Russian president Vladimir Putin.

“We are at a critical juncture on the ground that is beginning to be able to impact not only morale of the Ukrainians that are fighting, but also their ability to fight,” congressman Mike Turner, the Republican chair of the House intelligence committee, told CBS News last Sunday. “Putin knows this. This is obviously an area where we cannot allow Putin to win.”

Johnson already has two legislative options to approve more money for Ukraine, the Senate-approved package and a smaller $66bn bill introduced by a bipartisan group of House members. The second proposal would provide military-only funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, omitting the $10bn for humanitarian aid included in the Senate bill. The House legislation also outlines a number of border security provisions, a bid to sway some Republican members who are otherwise wary of sending more money to Kyiv.

“I am hopeful that the speaker will put the bill on the floor or an amended version of the bill on the floor so that we can once and for all ensure that our allies have the aid and support that they need,” congressman Mike Lawler, a Republican of New York and one of the House bill’s co-sponsors, told CNN last Sunday.

Of course, most House Democrats would prefer to pass the Senate package, and they have attempted to bypass Johnson to force a vote on the measure. Last month, Democrats revealed a discharge petition , which would trigger a floor vote on the Senate bill if a majority of House members signed on to it. But the discharge petition remains dozens of signatures short of the necessary 218, so Democrats will probably have to work with Johnson to approve more Ukraine funding.

Johnson will similarly need the support of at least some Democrats to get any aid package across the finish line. The speaker is expected to introduce a Ukraine funding bill under a procedural mechanism known as suspension of the rules, meaning he will need the support of two-thirds of members for passage. Given House Republicans’ increasingly narrow majority and hard-right members’ opposition to Ukraine funding, Johnson cannot clear that high hurdle with only votes from his conference.

While Johnson weighs his options, the specter of the motion to vacate looms in the background. If Greene follows through on her threat to force a vote on Johnson’s removal, the House must take up the matter within two legislative days. Johnson will then need the support of a majority of members to keep his job, and because of a recent string of Republican resignations, he can only afford to lose two votes within his conference.

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As of now, few Republicans appear eager to revisit the spectacle of last fall, when the conference’s repeated failures to elect a new speaker ground the House to a complete halt for weeks. Some centrist Democrats have already indicated they will not allow Greene to let the chamber descend into chaos, especially if she forces the motion to vacate vote over the issue of Ukraine funding.

“I do not support Speaker Johnson but I will never stand by and let [Greene] … take over the people’s House,” congressman Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat of Florida, posted to Twitter/X last month.

The House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, previously told the New York Times that he expected “a reasonable number” of his caucus members would come to Johnson’s assistance if his speakership was imperiled because of a vote on Ukraine aid. But one of the leading House progressives, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, has argued that Democrats’ support for Johnson should come with some legislative strings attached.

“My vote would most likely be for a Speaker Jeffries, which becomes an increasingly likely reality day after day as Republicans pursue further midterm resignations,” Ocasio-Cortez recently told CNN . “But I think, for those of us and for any Democrat inclined, I don’t think we do that for free.”

House Republicans appear all too aware of the threat of a Democratic speaker given their increasingly thin majority, and that possibility has made even some hard-right members wary of ousting Johnson. Congressman Matt Gaetz, a Republican of Florida who led the charge against former Republican speaker Kevin McCarthy last year, voiced hesitation about Greene’s motion.

“When I vacated the last [speaker], I made a promise to the country that we would not end up with a Democrat speaker,” Gaetz told reporters last month. “I couldn’t make that promise again today.”

With the House returning to session on Monday, Johnson will need to soon decide if he is willing to gamble his speakership on Ukraine funding. If he is not, the political costs could be severe – and the costs to Kyiv could be much higher.

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The Electoral College question looming over 2024

There are two scenarios that could explain where the 2024 election stands right now. In one, President Joe Biden is locked in something close to a 50-50 contest with former President Donald Trump.

In the other, Biden is trailing by more — maybe much more — than the national polls suggest. 

The answer depends largely on whether Trump and Republicans have maintained the advantage in the Electoral College that they held in the last two presidential elections.

In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than 2 percentage points — but Trump’s performance among certain demographics and in certain states meant he defeated her in the Electoral College, 306 to 232. (Because of “faithless” electors, the final history-book margin later changed to 304 to 227.)

In 2020, Biden bested Trump in the popular vote by 4.5 percentage points, getting him the same number of Electoral College votes Trump won four years earlier — 306.

And if that trend carries over to 2024, Biden might have to win the popular vote by 5 points or more to get the 270-plus Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency.

But a two-election trend is no guarantee of future results. And there’s another school of thought about 2024 that the GOP’s Electoral College edge may not be as pronounced, as Trump has made gains with Black and Latino voters, including in states like California and New York that won’t come close to deciding the presidential election. Even slightly better margins for Trump in those big, blue states could bring the national vote and the tipping-point state vote into closer alignment.

The question, however, is how sizable that decrease might be — if there is any. It’s an important piece of information to help gauge what the national polls really mean right now, but it’s also shrouded in mystery. 

“With Trump’s improvements among Hispanic and Black voters, the pro-GOP bias may decline by 1 to 2 points — but it won’t be erased,” said David Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst at the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.

“In other words, I think Trump could lose the popular vote by 2 points in November and still have an excellent chance of carrying Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada — which is why I view Trump as a pretty obvious favorite at the moment,” Wasserman added.

The case for the GOP maintaining its Electoral College edge

When political analysts discuss Electoral College bias, they’re referring to the difference between the margins in the popular vote and in the “tipping point” state — that is, the decisive state that carried the victorious candidate across the 270-electoral vote threshold needed to win the presidency.

Over much of the last 70 years, the tipping point states have closely tracked to the popular vote.

In 2012, for example, Barack Obama won the popular vote by almost 4 percentage points, and he carried his tipping point state, Colorado, by more than 5 points.

But that changed in the Trump era, when the Electoral College bias grew to the highest level since 1948 — in the Republican Party’s direction.

Part of the explanation was Trump’s particularly strong performance among white working-class voters in the Midwest and Rust Belt battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Another explanation was Democrats’ overperformance in states like California and New York, which aren’t key to deciding presidential contests in our current political landscape.

“Biden won by roughly 7 million votes [in 2020],” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, the GOP half of the bipartisan team that conducts the NBC News poll. “He won California by 5 million votes; he won New York by 2 million votes.”

“This means in 48 other states and D.C., the vote was essentially tied,” McInturff added.

Also, Democratic improvement in Texas — going from 41% of the vote in 2012 to 46% in 2020 — further underscores how, in the Trump era, three of the most populous states have swung in the Democrats’ direction relative to the nation.

And with Biden and Trump set to be on the presidential ballot again in 2024, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to see both overperformances — Trump’s with white working-class voters, Biden’s with voters in places like California and New York — repeat themselves.

The case for the GOP losing its Electoral College edge

A year ago, however, political number crunchers Nate Cohn of The New York Times  and J. Miles Coleman and Kyle Kondik of the  University of Virginia’s Center for Politics  surmised that 2024 could be different from 2016 and 2020.

With national polls showing Trump faring better with Black and Latino voters, and with Democrats performing better in the 2022 midterms in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania than in California and New York (relative to past results), they argued that the pro-GOP Electoral College bias could be shrinking.

“If in fact Trump is improving with young and diverse voters — a debatable proposition, I think, but this is what the polls show now — it may simply give him better margins in states he’s already likely to win or lose, like California, Florida and New York,” Kondik told NBC News.

“So I do think it’s possible that the pro-GOP bias in the Electoral College could be smaller in 2024 than 2020,” he added.

Indeed, recent high-quality California polls  show  Biden ahead of Trump in the state by about 20 points in a head-to-head matchup, down from Biden’s nearly 30-point winning margin in California in 2020.

As Cohn put it in his New York Times article last year: “At the very least, tied national polls today don’t mean Mr. Trump leads in the states likeliest to decide the presidency.”

Where the battleground polling stands right now

Currently, Biden and Trump are locked in a competitive contest nationally, according to head-to-head polls, but Trump has held a small, yet consistent, advantage in several of the top battleground states, although those results are usually within the margin of error.

And polling averages do hint at a pro-Trump Electoral College   bias in some battlegrounds, but not others. Now, a big caveat: Using polling averages to measure exactly   where a presidential contest currently stands can be problematic, because of the polls’ different methodologies, their different margins of error and their different reputations. But they can be useful to take a broad view at how the national polls might be different from battleground surveys.

According to the RealClearPolitics average, Biden and Trump are essentially tied in the national polls.

They’re also essentially tied in the battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, suggesting little to no pro-GOP bias in those states — a shift from the final results in the last few elections, when those states tilted several points to the right of the national vote.

But Trump is ahead in other battleground states, including in Michigan, which some analysts believe could be the tipping point state in 2024.

Mark Murray is a senior political editor at NBC News.