This is an eccentric old man who lives upstairs from Coraline and her family. The crazy old man refers to Coraline as “Caroline,” even when she corrects him—he is too busy preparing his mouse circus for a big performance to pay Coraline much attention. Though Coraline dismisses the old man as “crazy,” the story implies that his mice are actually capable of talking and performing music: they warn the old man that Coraline is in danger, and, at the end of the novel, can be heard performing delightful, tinkling music. The crazy old man upstairs teaches Coraline about the necessities of building a home—she learns that she must form relationships with her neighbors, even the “crazy” ones, and that sometimes, people are more delightful than one initially thinks.
The Crazy Old Man Upstairs/Mr. Bobo Quotes in Coraline
The Coraline quotes below are all either spoken by The Crazy Old Man Upstairs/Mr. Bobo or refer to The Crazy Old Man Upstairs/Mr. Bobo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
[Coraline] fancied she could hear sweet music on the night air: the kind of music that can only be played on the tiniest silver trombones and trumpets and bassoons, on piccolos and tubas so delicate and small that their keys could only be pressed by the tiny pink fingers of white mice.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Coraline LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Crazy Old Man Upstairs/Mr. Bobo Quotes in Coraline
The Coraline quotes below are all either spoken by The Crazy Old Man Upstairs/Mr. Bobo or refer to The Crazy Old Man Upstairs/Mr. Bobo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 13
Quotes
[Coraline] fancied she could hear sweet music on the night air: the kind of music that can only be played on the tiniest silver trombones and trumpets and bassoons, on piccolos and tubas so delicate and small that their keys could only be pressed by the tiny pink fingers of white mice.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
