Coraline

                                        The adventure in a child’s mind

     

         Neil Gaiman was born on 1960, Port Chester, England to David and Sheila 

Gaiman. He was also the first child of three. In 1965, the Gaiman family moved to East of Grintead, Gaiman lived there until 1980. He then ventured off to pursue a career and fulfill his manhood. He pursued a career in Journalism in the 1980s. He looked up to C.S Lewis, Edger Allan Poe and Robert A  Heinlein. He wrote a few magazines in different varieties with the format of pseudonyms. His first story he wrote was “feather quest” in May 1984. In 1990, he won an award for his first novel in fantasy and comedy. He was known world wild known for his sci-fi, fantasy and horror genre. He also wrote novels for children and adults, graphic novels, short stories, screenplays and many more. He was nominated on every award in every field of his writing. He is also known for his writing style, combination of fantasy and horror and the highly intelligent and allusive nature of his work. Many of his books he received awards, but the main books that were read a lot and awarded for were: Horrible Mention: Good Omens (1990), Stardust (1999), Never where (1996), American Gods (2001), The Graveyard book (2008)and Coraline in (2009). Coraline is one of his best selling children novels that was awarded a noble prize for the best children novel that teaches children how to make the right choices in life.

      The book Coraline  which was written by Neil Gaiman, it describes a young girl named Coraline who moves into a large old house with a flat and an overgrown garden, in the United Kingdom. The house was subdivided into three sections, Coraline and her parents lived in the middle section, miss spink and miss forcible on the bottom and in attic lived Mr.Bobo who trained mice for a living. From the time Coraline introduced herself her neighbors they got trouble pronouncing her name, they call her Caroline. Behind the flat has a garden, an old tennis court, an old rosé garden, a rockery(a heaped arrangement of rough stones with soil between them, planted with rock plants.), a fairy ring made of smelly toadstool and a forbidden well. (2-3) There was also a very haughty cat that lingered around the house. The house itself maintained its setting for the story and was very creepy, old, rusty and holey.

       Coraline's parents were always too busy or preoccupied with other things and work to pay attention to their daughter. Coraline was always a very independent child who loved to discovers new things making her curious. In general the archetypical structure of Coraline is seen as an explorer and a hero but in Pearson's view  she is seen as a seeker and a warrior.  A seeker is a person on a quest,pilgrimage,or adventure that takes place in order to satisfy an inner hunger or yearning. Often there is an inner tension between the drive to fit in and the deeper drive to be true to oneself. While the seeker fears the loneliness that can result from individuality, he or she is more afraid of the emptiness of not ever knowing orexpressing one's true self. When coraline moved in to her new home, the next day she went exploring. She was also told about a well, looked for it and made sure she didn’t fall into it. These are great example of a seeker in the real work, the pearson text also show that a seeker never wants to alone. When coraline’s parents were stolen by the other mother she cried and was terribly scared when she was alone. Her archetypal plot is when a seeker leaves a confining or boring situation and takes some kind  of inner or outter journey. Seekers such as coraline are suseptable to become very curious and also try their best to fit in with crowd, sometimes when you are a bit too curious they end up in trouble.This is show on pages 108 and 111 in the “what story are you living” by Carol.S.Pearson and Hugh.K.Marr.

        There is a little mysterious black door located in the drawing room of  Coralinesflat. She gets her mom to open the door but to their surprise there was a pile of bricks, her mothers choose not to lock it because it makes no sense. " she reached up and took a string of keys from the top of the kitchen doorframe. She sorted through them carefully, and selected the oldest, biggest, blackest, rustiest key. They went into the drawing room. She unlocked the door with the key. The door swung open. Her mother was right. The door didn't go anywhere. It opened onto a brick way" (Coraline 6-7) One day coralline was bored and opened the little black door and to her amazement it revealed a corridor leading to a flat quit like her own. She then ventured further into the other flat similar to her own, to her amazement she saw her mother in the kitchen cooking. Something was different, the other mother has paper white skin, she was skinnier and thinner, her fingers were too long and her finger nails were curved inwards, sharp with a dark red nail polish on them. “ the old black key felt colder than any of the others. She pushed in into the keyhole. It turned smoothly, with a satisfying clunk……. It opened to a dark hallway….. coraline went throught  the door. She wondered what was the empty flat would look like- if that was where the corridor led…the carpet beneath her feet was the same carpet they had in her flat…….she shook her head, confused…..Coraline went into the kitch, where the voice had come from. A woman stood in he kitch with her back to coraline. She looked a little like Coraline’s  mother. Only…. Only her skin was white as paper. Only she was taller and thinner. Only her fingers were too long, and they never stopped moving, and her dark red fingernails were curved and sharp. (Coraline 24-26)When the other mother sensed that Coraline came into the kitchen she turned around, to Coraline was shocked to see that she had black buttons were her eyes supposed to be. “Coraline?” the woman said. “Is that you?” abd then she turned around. Her eyes were big black bottons.” (Coraline 26)

The other mother was cooking diner and Coraline loved the smell of it, she never liked her mom or dad’s style of cooking. Soon Coraline discovered that her other father, the other Mr. Bobo and miss spinks and forcible had buttons for eyes too. While in the other world she saw the cat that lingers around their house in the real world but the only thing he could do is talk. He was a very withy and haughty cat that explained to Coraline that his name is cat and that’s final, he is not like humans who need a name to belong to this world. “standing on the wall next to her was a large black cat, Identical to the cat she’s seen on the grounds at home. “Good afternoon” said the cat….. “hello” said Coraline……  “please. What’s your name?” Coraline asked the cat. “look” I’m Coraline. Okay?” the cat yawned slowly, carefully, revealing a mouth and a tongue of astounding pinkness. " cats  dont have names." It said.... " now you people need names to fit into this world" We know who we are, so we don't need names." (Coraline33-35) 

     Coraline mentioned to her other parents that she wants to stay but the only way she could was to have the other mother sow the buttons to her eyes. Coraline said no and got scared and ran back home locked the door and went back home to her real world, with her real parents and real neighbors. " if you want to stay" said her other father, " there is only one little thing we'll have to do, so you can stay here forever and always.  they went into the kitchen. On the chins plate on the kitchen table was a spool of black cotton, and a long silver needle, and besides them, two large black bottons. " I don't think so" said coraline. " oh, but we want you to stay" said the other mother. " it won't hurt" said the other father." ( coraline43) Coraline knew anytime an adult said it won't hurt in does.

One day Coraline awoke to see that her parents didn’t come back home from work, so she went to see if Ms. Spinks and forcible have seen them, she had a cup of tea with them and in the end the sisters revealed that she is in grave danger, they took a few parcels of candy and made a rock with a hole in it. She was told to use it wisely. She went back to the house and still her parents weren’t home, she cried till she fell asleep. She was awaked by delicate licks and purrs from her friend the cat, he knew where her parents were, and they were trapped in the mirror in the drawing room. Coraline then calls the police and explained what happened and he though she had a great imagination. She toldherself that she cannot stay here and wait for her parent to come back which is impossible because the other mother had them. She packed a fruit and the stone and entered the corridor; she saw the other mother and asked for her parents, she soon challenged the other mother in a game to seek out the lost souls and her parents. She finds her parents and has the other children with her and runs with cat through the tunnel and looks the door. However she didn’t know that the other mother’s  hand came thought the tunnel, it wanted to key to open back the door but was tricked and fell into the forbidden old well in the garden and was never seen again.

     

       Coraline is a great example of why children liturature is A blessing for kids an fall ages, it teaches a valuable lesson about trust, companionship,loyalty, love, friendship and sacrifices. When children liturature was first written it was a black ANC white scenario which though children lessons, morals, values, law, obedience, love, sharing and caring. It was hard to read and very boring for many children because there were no pictures of color foramusement. Coraline"s boom does have pictures but they are black and white, it is a middle grade book full of excitement, trill and adventure. The book paints a perfect example of how valuable time is and how it should sent. This how literature is it teaches toy lesson that you will never forget and it makes you imagination soar.