Coraline: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

Coraline wakes to find herself being carried—the other mother is carrying her to the kitchen as Coraline struggles to rouse herself fully. The other mother sits Coraline down on the countertop, and Coraline resents the feeling of having been “cuddled and loved” by her for just a moment as she carried her in the same way Coraline’s real mother used to. Coraline notices that the other mother looks happier and “healthier”—her hair is floating around her face, wriggling like snakes, and her button eyes seem brighter.

Coraline asks the other mother if she is planning on turning Coraline into a “dead shell” like the other children in the closet—the other mother, though, plays dumb, and starts cooking Coraline a lavish breakfast. She insists that she loves Coraline and that ghosts aren’t real. Coraline says she knows the other mother likes games and asks if the other mother would like to win Coraline, “fair and square.” The other mother, clearly intrigued, asks Coraline what she means. Coraline explains that she wants to propose a challenge. If she loses, she’ll stay in the other mother’s world forever and replace her eyes with buttons. If she wins, however, then the other mother has to let Coraline, her parents, and the dead children go.

The other mother sets Coraline’s breakfast down on the kitchen table and asks what kind of game Coraline would like to play. Coraline says she’d like to play a “finding-things game” and search for her parents and the souls of the lost children who live behind the mirror. The other mother declares Coraline’s challenge a deal. Coraline asks the other mother to swear. The other mother swears on her mother’s grave. Coraline asks if the other mother’s mother has a grave—the other mother says that she “put her in there [herself.]” Coraline, perturbed, asks the other mother to swear on something else. Waggling her fingers, the other mother swears on her right hand. Coraline agrees to the deal and hungrily scarfs her breakfast.

When Coraline finishes eating, she begins her exploring game. She starts searching the house for the souls of the lost children, but she doesn’t really know what souls look like, how big they are, or where they might be hidden. The other mother smilingly watches Coraline search for a while, then vanishes. Coraline leaves the kitchen and wanders into the hallway. She takes the stone from her pocket and holds it in her hand—in the mirror, she sees, the stone glows like a gem rather than a plain old pebble.

Coraline goes into her bedroom and looks around for the souls under the bed and in the toy box. She’s frustrated when she can’t find anything that looks like a soul—or something a soul might be hiding in—but then she remembers the voice telling her to look through the hole in the stone. Coraline lifts the stone to her eye—through the hole, the world appears gray and colorless. The only thing that has any color at all is a glass marble at the bottom of the toy box—it glows red and fiery, and Coraline picks it up. As she does, she hears one of the lost children’s voices congratulating her on a job well done and nervously urging her to hurry up and find the other two.

Coraline feels uncomfortable in her “other” clothes and changes back into her pajamas and robe. As she puts the marble and the stone in the pocket of the robe and steps into the hall, she feels a strong wind stinging her face. One of the lost children’s voices is in her ear warning her that the other mother is angry. Coraline shouts out, calling for the other mother and ordering her to play fair—the wind quickly dies down.

Coraline decides to look in the other Miss Spink and the other Miss Forcible’s flat for another soul. When she approaches the door, however, she finds that the marquee is nearly out. Inside the theater, the stage is dark, and the seats are empty. She finds a flashlight on the ground and uses it to take a look around—the theater looks as if it has been abandoned for years, and there are “hairless, jellyfish” things hanging from the ceiling. They have strange shapes that remind Coraline of dogs, bats, and spiders all at once.

Coraline shines her light on the stage—up on the back wall there is a huge, “grayish white” creature that seems to be gestating in some sort of sac. As Coraline approaches the sac, she sees that it contains a two-headed, many-limbed creature. Coraline looks around the theater through the stone, half-hoping that there are no souls to be found so that she can leave—but, to her horror, she realizes that the creature in the sac is holding yet another glowing marble.

Coraline approaches the creature in the sac, pushes her hand inside, and wrestles the marble from one of the creature’s many hands. Coraline looks at the creature’s faces—they appear to be versions of the other, younger Misses Spink and Forcible, but their faces have melted like candlewax. Suddenly a hand tries to grab at Coraline and one of the creature’s heads begins wailing, but Coraline turns and runs. The horrible dog-bat-spider creatures from the ceiling chase Coraline, but she outruns them and hears the voice of a second lost child congratulating her once again and urging her to hurry up and find the last remaining soul.