Parents and Children Theme Analysis

When Coraline Jones finds herself frustrated with her parents and yearning for their attention, she is, at the height of her unhappiness, presented with a world in which a set of “other” parents has been waiting to lavish her with attention, cook her all her favorite foods, and cater to her every whim. Coraline’s other parents are also, however, evil entities with black buttons for eyes who “kidnap” her real parents and hold them hostage. Coraline suddenly finds herself tasked with being the one to save her family and hold them together. Ultimately, Neil Gaiman argues that sometimes, children must be the ones to help or even save their parents; the love and responsibility between parents and children must, he suggests, be a two-way street.

At the start of the novel, Coraline believes that her mother and father exist to provide for her, entertain her, and, in effect, worship her. Over the course of the novel, though, she comes to realize that just as parents have an obligation to keep their children safe and healthy, children have certain obligations to their parents, as well. The early pages of the novel follow Coraline closely as she explores her and her parents’ new flat (which is part of a large mansion that has been converted into four individual units) and the grounds surrounding it. Her parents are barely a part of the narrative—Coraline knows that their jobs involve “doing things on computers,” but doesn’t seem to take their work or responsibilities seriously and pesters them constantly when she grows bored of exploring or is kept inside by the weather. In Coraline’s view, her parents are uninteresting and exist only to move her around the country; dictate what she eats and what she wears; and impose rules, regulations, and chores upon her life. Because of this, and because Gaiman’s narrative follows Coraline’s perspective, Coraline’s parents aren’t really developed as people early on in the novel. Coraline is so detached from them that after they first disappear, she doesn’t quite seem to mind until they’ve been gone for a full day. Coraline’s contentious relationship with her parents shows that she feels if she could be free of them, she’d be happier—a notion that will soon be questioned as a strange turn of events takes place.

When Coraline defies her mother by stealing the house keys and going into the drawing room in order to enter the mysterious door, she’s motivated by two things: curiosity and rebellion. She believes her parents are boring, and she is frustrated with them for imposing rules and regulations upon her. In the other mother’s world, which lies through a strange dark hall on the other side of the door, Coraline’s “other” parents are waiting for her. The two of them are overjoyed to see Coraline and attempt to woo her into staying by cooking her delicious meals, letting her shirk her chores, and spend all her time playing with toys. The other mother is constantly reminding Coraline of how much she loves her—and constantly trying to touch or even grope Coraline with her thin, restless hands, her long fingers, and her strange, wriggling hair. At first Coraline is entranced by the other mother and other father’s doting treatment of her, but she soon grows creeped out by their strange obsession with her and begins longing for her old parents. She returns to her world to find they’ve gone—and when she returns to the other mother’s world again is told they’ve abandoned her forever.

Coraline, however, refuses to believe the other mother’s tricks and lies about how Coraline’s parents have abandoned her and would be better off without her. She is determined to get her parents back. She knows that she’s the one who’s landed them in this predicament in the first place, and, as she searches the other mother’s world to see where they’ve been hidden, she’s reminded of pleasant memories of her parents which illustrate how much they really do love her—even if their relationships with her are far from perfect. Coraline recalls her father saving her from a swarm of wasps and fondly misses the way her mother used to carry her when she was small. Her pleasant memories of her parents subsume her resentment of their attachment to their work and their disinterest in playing games with her. Coraline learns, through her dealings with the other mother, that when parents behave like children—and don’t respect the boundaries and demands of parenthood, even the difficult parts—things are just not quite right. Ultimately, Coraline realizes that if her real parents gave her everything she asked for whenever she asked for it, doted on her constantly, and never gave her any rules or responsibilities, she’d be unhappy. What she wants, she’s learned, is the relationship she had with her parents before—imperfect, sure, but built on a strong foundation of love, respect, and the pursuit of what’s right (even when what’s right isn’t what’s easy).

Neil Gaiman uses Coraline to create a portrait of a family in flux. In their new surroundings, Coraline and her parents are uncomfortable with and slightly resentful of one another—they’re all trying to adjust to their new home and test the boundaries of their relationships with one another. All of this, Gaiman ultimately suggests, is normal. A child’s expectation that parents will always behave perfectly, adoringly, and dotingly is unfair and impossible, as is the idea that children will be as self-sufficient, responsible, and mature as their parents might like them to be. Ultimately, Gaiman shows that parents and children have a series of responsibilities to one another in spite of their imperfections—and that to dream of a conflict-free parent-child relationship is to erase all the struggles and hardships that create a strong bond.