Coraline

by

Neil Gaiman

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Themes and Colors
Coming of Age and Finding Oneself Theme Icon
Parents and Children Theme Icon
Home and the Familiar Theme Icon
Fear and Bravery Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Coraline, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Parents and Children Theme Icon

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.

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Parents and Children ThemeTracker

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Parents and Children Quotes in Coraline

Below you will find the important quotes in Coraline related to the theme of Parents and Children.
Chapter 3 Quotes

“Coraline?” the woman said. “Is that you?”

And then she turned around. Her eyes were big black buttons.

“Lunchtime, Coraline,” said the woman.

“Who are you?” asked Coraline.

“I’m your other mother,” said the woman. “Go and tell your other father that lunch is ready,” She opened the door of the oven. Suddenly Coraline realized how hungry she was. It smelled wonderful.

Related Characters: Coraline Jones (speaker), The Other Mother (speaker), The Other Father
Related Symbols: Buttons, Food and Drink
Page Number: 26
Explanation and Analysis:

[Coraline’s] other parents stood in the kitchen doorway as she walked down the corridor, smiling identical smiles, and waving slowly. “Have a nice time outside,” said her other mother.

“We’ll just wait here for you to come back,” said her other father.

When Coraline got to the front door, she turned back and looked at them. They were still watching her, and waving, and smiling.

Related Characters: The Other Mother (speaker), The Other Father (speaker), Coraline Jones
Page Number: 30-31
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4 Quotes

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.

Her other mother took her hand away.

Related Characters: Coraline Jones (speaker), The Other Mother , The Other Father
Page Number: 42
Explanation and Analysis:

“If you want to stay,” said her other father, “there’s only one little thing we’ll have to do, so you can stay here for ever and always.”

They went into the kitchen. On a china plate on the kitchen table was a spool of black cotton, and a long silver needle, and, beside them, two large black buttons.

“I don’t think so,” said Coraline.

“Oh, but we want you to,” said her other mother. “We want you to stay. And it’s just a little thing.”

Related Characters: Coraline Jones (speaker), The Other Mother (speaker), The Other Father (speaker)
Related Symbols: Buttons
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

“And he said that wasn’t brave of him, doing that, just standing there and being stung,” said Coraline to the cat. “It wasn’t brave because he wasn’t scared: it was the only thing he could do. But going back again to get his glasses, when he knew the wasps were there, when he was really scared. That was brave.”

Related Characters: Coraline Jones (speaker), The Cat, Coraline’s Father/Mr. Jones
Page Number: 56-57
Explanation and Analysis:

“Why does she want me?” Coraline asked the cat. “Why does she want me to stay here with her?”

“She wants something to love, I think,” said the cat. “Something that isn’t her. She might want something to eat as well. It’s hard to tell with creatures like that.”

Related Characters: Coraline Jones (speaker), The Cat (speaker), The Other Mother
Related Symbols: Food and Drink
Page Number: 63
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“If you won’t even talk to me,” said Coraline, “I am going exploring.”

“No point,” said the other father. “There isn’t anywhere but here. This is all she made: the house, the grounds, and the people in the house. She made it and she waited.” Then he looked embarrassed and he put one finger to his lips again, as if he had just said too much.

Related Characters: Coraline Jones (speaker), The Other Father (speaker), The Other Mother
Page Number: 69
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

[The other mother] picked Coraline up, just as Coraline’s real mother had when Coraline was much younger, cradling the half-sleeping child as if she were a baby.

The other mother carried Coraline into the kitchen and put her down very gently upon the countertop.

Coraline struggled to wake herself up, conscious only for the moment of having been cuddled and loved, and wanting more of it, then realizing where she was and who she was with.

Related Characters: Coraline Jones, The Other Mother , Coraline’s Mother/Mrs. Jones
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:

“I think I like this game. But what kind of game shall it be? A riddle game? A test of knowledge or of skill?”

“An exploring game,” suggested Coraline. “A finding-things game.”

“And what is it you think you should be finding in this hide-and-go-seek game, Coraline Jones?”

Coraline hesitated. Then, “My parents,” said Coraline. “And the souls of the children behind the mirror.”

Related Characters: Coraline Jones (speaker), The Other Mother (speaker), Coraline’s Mother/Mrs. Jones, Coraline’s Father/Mr. Jones, The Lost Children
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Outside, the world had become a formless, swirling mist with no shapes or shadows behind it, while the house itself seemed to have twisted and stretched. […]

The other mother was waiting for [Coraline], standing on the grass with her arms folded. Her black button eyes were expressionless, but her lips were pressed tightly together in a cold fury.

Related Characters: Coraline Jones, The Other Mother
Related Symbols: Buttons
Page Number: 103
Explanation and Analysis:

Coraline nodded. It was true: the other mother loved her. But she loved Coraline as a miser loves money, or a dragon loves its gold. In the other mother’s button eyes, Coraline knew that she was a posses­sion, nothing more. A tolerated pet, whose behavior was no longer amusing.

Related Characters: Coraline Jones, The Other Mother
Related Symbols: Buttons
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“Help me, please,” she said. “All of you.”

The other people in the corridor—three children, two adults—were somehow too insubstantial to touch the door. But their hands closed about hers, as she pulled on the big iron door handle, and suddenly she felt strong.

“Never let up, Miss! Hold strong! Hold strong!” whis­pered a voice in her mind.

“Pull, girl, pull!” whispered another.

And then a voice that sounded like her mother’s—her own mother, her real, wonderful, maddening, infuriating, glorious mother—just said, “Well done, Coraline,” and that was enough.

Related Characters: Coraline Jones (speaker), Coraline’s Mother/Mrs. Jones (speaker), The Lost Children (speaker)
Page Number: 131-132
Explanation and Analysis: