You don’t frighten me,” said Coraline, although they did frighten her, very much. “I want my parents back.”
Though the stop-motion animation film is well talked about, the original Coraline novel is quite underrated. The book is short, and as the author Neil Gaiman put it, he only put down the words that needed to be said, unlike his other novels.
People claim that the message of Coraline is about the grass not being greener on the other side, and that you should trust your (real) parents. But not all kids have good parents, and I believe this story has a bigger theme of bravery. At least, in the original novel this theme is more explicit, but can be implied from the film as well.
In fact, Gaiman said he liked the majority of the book-to-film changes, including the “the sassy, blue-haired, American Coraline.” But there was a piece of the movie he felt didn’t agree with his original vision: “I was uncomfortable with feeling like Wybie had rescued [Coraline] at the end.” Gaiman wanted to emphasize the idea of Coraline saving her own day herself.
I love stories for children about children standing up against evil, especially with adults who are in the wrong, because it’s important to teach children that not all adults should be trusted and respected. Most authors are adults so they try to force this theme of “trust your elders” into children’s stories, but that isn’t how real life works. Adults are often wrong.
In Coraline, Coraline Jones has to figure out a way to outwit the Other Mother basically all by herself. Characters in the story who are somewhat helpful, like the cat, talk down to her as adults often do to children, which is why this story evokes a feeling of fear during childhood. Similar to Alice and Wonderland, Coraline is treated like she’s stupid by the other characters, when actually it’s up to her to figure out how to escape and be brave. Childhood often feels confusing and scary like this.
Even if this story is “scary,” I think it’s important for kids to learn about evil in the world, and how there might not always be an adult to stop it for them, especially because adults aren’t perfect. And kids can handle more complex stories than we think.
“‘And why was that?’ asked the cat, although it sounded barely interested.
‘Because,’ [Coraline] said, ‘when you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave.’”
Word Count: 400
Wow Annabelle this was really good! I know the other day we were just talking about blogs and I mentioned how you always seemed to do literary analysis and now I know why. Coraline was one of my favorite movies when I was younger surprisingly because it would seem scarier to younger viewers but I never knew there was a book that was before the movie. I liked how you compared the book to the movie and what the actual author thought about the movie. It was very interesting how you talked about standing up to grown-ups who aren’t always right and how it takes bravery to stand up for yourself. I could really relate to feeling like you always have to listen to elders but in reality, you don’t. Great job, I really enjoyed reading!
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