Los Angeles Times states that “The most rending kind of war is not between two hatreds, but between two hopes”. Correspondingly, Andre Dubus III introduces two hopes in the novel House of Sand and Fog written in 1999. Behrani and Kathy, two determined yet fragile individuals, come from different backgrounds that meet in the California hills struggles to gain social stability. The competing desires for the house leads to Behrani’s ultimate downfall. His obsession with the house comes from the ambition to procure a large sum of money to ameliorate the family’s social status in America; as a result, he is blind to see the house’s flaws. Consequently, this restricts his ability to understand kathy when she claims she is the righteous owner of the house. The continuous misconception between Kathy and Behrani evolves into severe conflict; the final outcome is tragedy, deaths. Obsession with the house is the result of the desire to gain social status. Behrani’s fame is lost since the day they fled to America from Iran four years ago. In Iran, Behrani is Colonel in the Imperial Air Force and others respect him deeply indeed. Here, he works outdoors as a garbage soldier and others view him “no longer than a man would take for a dead insect upon his windshield while driving”, Behrani thought “for the thousandth time in this terrible country I wished to be wearing my uniform”. (Dubus III, 22) He is ambitious to restore his dignity and social status, so he devotes most of his time to hard work. In the evenings, he works at the convenience store to earn enough for their monthly rent of three thousand dollars. They have forty eight thousand dollars remaining and his son, Esmail needs this money to attend first two years of university. His daughter, Soraya marries a young engineer on Saturday and they are now free to leave the place which they rent to keep up their appearance. Behrani argues with his wife, Nadi, multiple times for a more reasonable place to live and now be the chance to purchase a home. “Perhaps it is the seized property I must begin to view, the used, the broken, the stolen. Perhaps there is where we can get our start”. (Dubus III, 20) Behrani prepares the start of a new life, “a life in the buying and selling of American real estate”. (Dubus III, 33) When he tours around the house for the first time, he feels a sense of destiny. Without any hesitation, he purchases the house at forty five thousand dollars. He obsesses with the house because the house s what he seeks for and reminds him of their summer home in the mountains near the Caspian Sea. His fingers trembles when he recalls the low cost of the house and most importantly, the house worths one hundred and eighty thousand dollars in total. He sees the house as a turning point for the family to restore their sicial status and the beginning of a bright future. Behrani finds it hard to step out of his obsession with the house and he thinks nothing else but how to increase the value of the house. This results his blindness to see house’s flaws. Behrani’s blindness to see the house’s flaws because he loves the house which he purchases. This blindness leads to his misunderstanding with Kathy when they encounter. While Behrani cuts his lawn, the construction worker of the widow’s walk greets him and asks him whether he sees the woman who claims herself to be the owner of the house. At first, Behrani mistakes Kathy as Najar’s girlfriend. It is shocking to hear this unexpected piece of information from an outsider. He does not take in the piece of information seriously and places Kathy in the category of crazy people, he says to Najar: “In my country crazy people are put in hospitals, but here you let them wander as free as sheep”. (Dubus III, 83) Kathy is really anxious to get the house back because she is currently homeless and she has about eight hundred in checking and fifty in savings. She would not let her hard- won social stability slip away from her easily. The bureaucrats evict Kathy out of her house because of the five hundred and thirty dollars of unpaid business tax. This is the result for throwing away all mail from the county tax office without opening them. However, Kathy does not run business from the house and she should not have received mail from county tax office regarding the tax issue, there must be a mistake. Kathy’s lawyer contacts the county tax office and they agree they make the mistake and willing to give back the money Behrani pays to purchase the house. However, Kathy has to persuade Behrani, the current owner of the house to rescind the house. It is not easy to persuade him to move out of the house, so Kathy’s lawyer, Connie sends Behrani a letter asks for the return of the house. This elevates Behrani’s anger and he makes his visit to the lawyer’s office to discuss the issue. In addition, he meets up with other lawyers and asks for their suggestions on such a matter, they tell him he has reasonable grounds to not return the home to Kathy. He restores his confidence. When Kathy drives to the house, expects to solve the issue as soon as possible. Behrani already went for his visit. He explains to Kathy it is the mistake of the bureaucrats and he believes there is nothing more to say to her regarding the return of the house. He pays the house in full cash and he determines he is the owner of the house. He shows impatience with Kathy and asks her to leave, this leads to Kathy’s misunderstanding. She believes it is Behrani, who forbids her from getting her house back and she resents him for the stubbornness and inflexibility. This leads to the tragedy as Kathy becomes Behrani’s first adversary and things goes out of control. This misunderstanding leads to convolute conflict that is hard to solve.