Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Coraline, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age and Finding Oneself
Parents and Children
Home and the Familiar
Fear and Bravery
Summary
Analysis
The next day is sunny, and Coraline’s mother takes Coraline into town to buy some new school clothes while Coraline’s father goes into London for the day. At the shop, however, Coraline’s mother won’t buy her any of the things she wants, like Day-Glo green gloves and animal-shaped Wellington boots. Coraline is upset when her mother insists on buying her boring clothes that are too big for her so that one day she will grow into them.
Coraline wishes that her mother would indulge her whims and wishes rather than insisting on practicality. Coraline doesn’t feel understood by her parents and wishes that they’d treat her differently—or perhaps be different people themselves.
Themes
On the way home, Coraline asks her mother whether there’s anyone (or anything) in the empty flat, and whether the apartment somehow connects to theirs. Coraline’s mother insists it doesn’t. Back at the house, Coraline and her mother discover that there are no groceries for lunch. Coraline’s mother heads back out to shop for food.
This passage shows that while Coraline is fed up and frustrated with her mother, she still relies on her for comfort—Coraline is clearly perturbed by the existence of the door, contrary to her previous excitement about being in danger, and wants her mother to assure her that everything will be all right.
Themes
As soon as her mother leaves, Coraline retrieves the key ring from on top of the cupboard and goes into the drawing room. She uses the old black key—which strangely feels “colder than any of the others”—to open the door. Something inside Coraline tells her that what she’s doing is wrong, but she ignores the voice inside her and opens the door. Behind it there is no longer a brick wall, but instead a long dark hallway. Coraline senses a presence that is “very old and very slow” inside the hall—but goes through the door anyway.
Coraline’s curiosity is ultimately greater than her sense of apprehension and fear. Even when faced with a mysterious presence in a long, dark hallway, Coraline presses on—she wants, perhaps, to prove herself as an explorer.
Themes
As Coraline walks through the hall and emerges on the other side, she realizes that she is still in her own home—or at least a version of it. Small details are different, such as the expression on the face of a boy in a painting hanging on the wall. As Coraline looks at the boy’s eyes, trying to figure out what’s different about them, a voice calls out to her—it is a voice that sounds like her mother’s.
Coraline’s journey through a long, dark passage into a world which resembles her own closely but not perfectly is reminiscent of other literary heroines’ journeys to find themselves—most notably, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Themes
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Coraline goes into the kitchen to find a woman standing there. She looks very much like Coraline’s mother but is different in several ways. She is tall and thin, with extremely pale skin and long fingers. Where her eyes should be there are instead two large shiny black buttons. Coraline asks the woman who she is, and she explains that she’s Coraline’s “other mother.” She urges Coraline to fetch her “other father” for lunch. Coraline goes down the familiar hall towards her father’s study—the man she finds inside looks just like her father but has the same large black buttons for eyes as the other mother. The other father greets Coraline cheerfully and follows her down the hall for lunch.
The introduction of the other mother is a dense, peculiar passage in the novel. Coraline recognizes immediately that the other mother is not her mother—and yet the other mother, for all her off-putting features, has clearly worked to transform herself into a convincing-enough facsimile of Coraline’s real mother. The other mother clearly has designs on Coraline—and the fact that she’s altered herself to be more enticing to Coraline suggests that she’s altered everything of her world that Coraline can see for the same purpose.
Themes
At the kitchen table, the other mother serves a huge roasted chicken with delicious sides. Coraline eats hungrily. As Coraline shovels food into her mouth, her other parents explain that they’ve been waiting for her for a long time—now that she’s here, they say, they can finally be a “proper family.” When lunch is finished, Coraline’s other parents volunteer to do all the dishes and urge her go to her room and play with her toys—and the rats “from upstairs.”
Whereas Coraline’s real father and mother are constantly fed up with her—and forever cooking her icky recipes—her other mother and her other father pamper and dote on her, granting her wishes before she can even articulate them. Still, there’s an underpinning of darkness—such as the other parents’ button eyes, and the presence of rats in the house.
Themes
Coraline’s other bedroom is painted in strange shades of green and pink. Coraline doesn’t quite like the colors but admits that the bedroom is much more “interesting” than her own. The toys in Coraline’s other bedroom are enchanted and move on their own. Coraline enjoys playing with them until a rat runs across the floor and under her bed. Unsettled, Coraline peeks under the bed and finds over fifty small red eyes staring at her. Coraline invites the rats out from under the bed and tries to talk nicely to them. She asks if they can speak—in response, they form a circle around her. The largest of the rats smiles unpleasantly at Coraline, and then they all begin to sing a song similar to the one Coraline heard the other night in her dreams.
The rats continue singing their threatening song to Coraline—suggesting that they are still anticipating her fall or failure. Coraline has found herself in a world which has all the trappings of paradise—parents who dote upon her, a brightly-colored bedroom, delicious food—but there is a terribly dark undercurrent suggesting that all of the pleasantries of this world are simply meant to trap Coraline.
Themes
The rats scamper towards the door. Coraline turns to look at where they’re running to and sees that the other crazy old man from upstairs has materialized in the doorway—the rats scamper up into his clothes, and the largest one sits atop his head. The other old man invites Coraline upstairs to watch the rats “feed”—uncomfortable, she says she’d like to explore outside instead. As the other crazy old man walks away, Coraline believes she can hear the rats whispering to one another.
The rats are a decidedly sinister presence—they seem to want to lure Coraline somewhere where they can harm her. The other mother’s love for them shows that they’re her devoted minions—and that Coraline can’t trust them, however much the other mother tries to frame them as friends or playmates.
Themes
Coraline walks down the hall towards the front door, where she finds her other mother and other father waiting for her. They smile and wave at her and tell her to have a nice time outside—they promise they’ll be waiting by the door for her to return. As Coraline heads outside, she turns around for a second—her other parents are still smiling and waving from the door.
Coraline is disconcerted by the amount of attention her other parents are giving her. In her own world, all she wanted was her parents’ attention—now, though, she’s disturbed by the way the other mother and other father seem to watch her unceasingly. Coraline is learning some empathy for her real parents—and an important lesson about expectations and responsibilities between parents and children.
Themes
