"My dreams are stronger than others' here, perhaps. And they're harder because someone else has to pay for them" (22).

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Bill Rawn, the architect, is speaking about the way in which the Souweines' house is also part of his own dreams, but he has a conflict because the clients have to pay for the house. The clients have the ability to reject Bill's vision.

From his last meeting with Jonathan, Jim knows that Souweines hope for concessions on the price, and he's not sure that even as it stands, his final price is high enough to cover the cost of this house and a modest profit for Apple Corps (39).

Jim Locke, one of the contractors from Apple Corps, presents the final price to the client, Jonathan. Jim has his own set of pressures, as he has to keep the price down but still turn a profit.

While he was at it, Bill altered the front wall, the house's temple end. He added two pilasters to the front, so that the temple end had four pilasters in all, one at each corner and two in between (71).

The pilasters that Bill, the architect, want to add to the house are a source of contention with the clients. They are symbolic of the conflicts between the architect and his clients over the design of the house.

Sometimes Jonathan wishes for a quicker, more decisive, and less persistent Bill. And then again, he isn't sure. Maybe he needs the slowing down that Bill provides. Anyway, Bill is the kind of person for whom one makes allowances. "Bill's an artist," Jonathan says. "I'm not" (215).

Jonathan feels conflicted about Bill, the architect. Jonathan wants to trust Bill's architectural vision, but he also wants the house finished more quickly. This back-and-forth symbolizes the conflicts between the architect and the clients.

"It's so big!" That's what most friends and acquaintances tell Judith when they visit the site. It makes her feel uncomfortable. She calls the house 'The Taj' now, when Bill brings up those extra pilasters he wants on the temple end (226).

Though Judith wants a grand house, she also feels conflicted about how ostentatious it seems, and the pilasters symbolize this excess to her.