People- regardless of age- generally want something. However many people show these feelings of want in their own distinct ways ways, especially at a younger age. This idea is explored in Neil Gaiman’s book “Coraline” in which the beginning shows a young english girl named Coraline lives with her parents in a new house and has a few odd neighbors above and below her large apartment like house. Her journey begins as she explores her house as she loves to do and comes across a very strange door. When she enters through a long hallway she sees a somewhat identical house except for some minor aspects. Her ‘other parents’ as she calls them have the same look as her real parents except that they have black buttons instead of eyes. She talks with them and explores the world until her other parents ask for her to stay if she would only replace her eyes with buttons. She runs away but is forced to return when she finds her other parents have stolen her real parents and embarks on an adventure of bravery and strength. Throught the story she is tempted by many things and many people. The ways in which the author makes Coraline act and react reveals what she wants, and in some cases this results in bringing out what she keeps to herself.
By making Coraline react in the way she did, we see her different feelings about her other parents, but for whatever reason she might have, doesn’t tell people. The author shows this when Coraline has recently explored the new world. On pages 44-45 the author writes, “‘Did you have a nice time?’ asked her other mother. ‘It was interesting,’said Coraline. The three of them walked back up to Coraline’s other house together. Coraline’s other mother stroked Coraline’s hair with her long white fingers. Coraline shook her head. ‘Don’t do that,’ said Coraline...’Because we’d like to think that this is your home. You can stay here for ever and always. If you want to.’ ‘Hmm,’ said Coraline. She put her hand in her pockets” Both these quotes show that Coraline dislikes her other mother through her actions/reactions. When her other mother asks her questions such as “Did you have a nice time?” and (while it isn’t a question, it implies one) “You can stay here for ever and always. If you want to.” She gives very short answers and seems relatively distant as if she would rather be away from her, but doesn’t just obviously show it by walking away or saying it out loud. She also doesn’t reply with a yes or no when she is asked if she would like to stay forever and just says “Hmm” as if she knew she definitely didn’t want to stay, but tried to express it in a non-offensive way. It shows us that she dislikes her despite her relatively casual attitude. Furthermore, the author shows this once more as he this time subtly shows what Coraline thinks of her other father. On page 112-113 the text states, “‘Run, child. Leave this place. She wants me to hurt you, to keep you here forever, so that you can never finish the game and she will win. She is pushing me so hard to hurt you. I cannot fight her.’ ‘You can,’ said Coraine. ‘Be brave.’... ‘Alas,’ it said, ‘I cannot.’ And it lunged across the cellar toward her then, its toothless mouth opened wide. Coraline had a single heatbeat in which to react. She could only think of two things to do. … As the thing reached her, Coraline put out her hand and closed it around the thing’s remaining button eye, and she tugged as hard as she knew how.” This scene is fairly significant as far as their relationship is concerned. At first, because Coraline doesn’t just abandon her other father in his apparent struggle against her other mother even after he urges her to leave for she is in danger. She instead tries to help him and break free from her other mother’s control. And even after he begins to attack her she doesn’t do anything more serious than pull out his eye, which in the world they are in comes without pain. It shows that she still cares for him and empathizes with him. The actions of her trying her best to help him, and not being able to bring herself to hurt him are the authors ways to express Coraline's inner thoughts without giving it away so easily. Something we see still further in the book.
In addition, many of her actions show what wants she has that drive her to stay determined and brave. Staring directly into the face of danger the author makes her act in a way that reveals what she wants so badly that keeps her going. Page 123 states, “‘She has lied to you. She will never give you up, now she has you. She will no more give any of us up than change her nature.’ The hairs on the back of Coraline’s neck prickled, and Coraline knew that the girl’s voice told the truth. She put the marble in her dressing-gown pocket with the others. She had all three marbles, now. All she needed to do was find her parents.” This quote shows that although she is informed that all her work has been in vain, that she will not be allowed access home, Coraline is undeterred. She is just as confident as always to proceed and find her parents. These actions tell us that she greatly wants her parents back. So much, in fact, that she is willing to face whatever the scary creator of this new world can make. We see this again in her actions on page 56-58 just after she became sure her parents weren’t coming back without her interference and decides to return to the world from which she escaped. The text states, “‘When I was a little girl,’ said Coraline to the cat, ‘when we lived in our old house, a long, long time ago, my dad took me for a walk on the wasteland between our house and the shops. ‘It wasn’t the best place to go for a walk, really. There were all these things that people had thrown away back there- old cookers and broken dishes and dolls with no arms and no legs and empty cans and broken bottles. Mum and Dad made me promise not to go exploring back there, because there were too many sharp things, and tetanus and such. ‘But I kept telling them I wanted to explore it. So one day my dad put on his big brown boots and his gloves and put my boots on me and my jeans and sweater, and we went for a walk. ‘We must have walked for about twenty minutes. We went down this hill, to the bottom of a gully where a stream was, when my dad suddenly said to me, “Coraline- run away. Up the hill. Now!’ He said it in a tight sort of way, urgently, so I did. I ran away up the hill. Something hurt me on the back of my arm as I ran, but I kept running. ‘As I got to the top of the hill I heard somebody thundering up the hill behind me. It was my dad, charging like a rhino. When he reached me he picked me up in his arms and swept me over the edge of the hill. ‘And then we stopped and we puffed and we panted, and we looked back down the gully. ‘The air was alive with yellow wasps. We must have stepped on a wasps’ nest in a rotten branch as we walked. And while I was running up the hill, my dad stayed and got stung, to give me time to run away. His glasses had fallen off when he ran. ‘I only had the one sting on the back of my arm. He had thirty-nine stings, all over him. We counted later, in the bath.’... This long quote shows that her actions, which in this case is her recalling the story show that she wants to repay her dad for what he did and prove she is just as brave, which keeps her going. She retells this story because her father is doing something brave for her when she needed it and now she will return the favor. Just like most kids, Coraline doesn’t just tell her parents she wants to be appreciated and treated equally, but instead she knows she wants this herself and only feels secure to tell the cat. She decides she should do this as a sort of debt and that idea of wanting to be appreciated keeps her brave and strong.
In conclusion, Neil Gaiman uses Coraline’s actions and reactions to show what she wanted in a more sophisticated way, and let the reader infer things that Coraline never said aloud. By doing so Coraline became a deeper and more interesting main character enhancing the story itself. It was made much more realistic and therefore easier to empathize with her as she embarked on her remarkable journey.
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