The Graveyard Book

by

Neil Gaiman

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The Graveyard Book: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Bod grows into a quiet child with gray eyes and mousy hair. Once he learns to talk, he asks questions incessantly. Ghosts often give him confusing answers, so Bod turns to Silas. Silas explains that Bod can’t leave the graveyard because this is where his family is and where he’s safe. He also explains that Bod will learn some skills, like Fading, Sliding, and Dreamwalking, if he practices—though Bod will have to wait much longer to learn other skills. Silas carefully notes that Bod was given the Freedom of the Graveyard, which means that the graveyard is taking care of Bod. One day, Bod asks who’s in a particular grave. When Silas realizes that Bod hasn’t been learning to read, he obtains alphabet books and begins teaching Bod, using the inscriptions on headstones.
Here, Silas confirms that the Freedom of the Graveyard makes Bod a part of the graveyard family. The graveyard itself protects Bod, and it also gives him access to people who care about him, which is another layer of protection. Silas also implies, somewhat cryptically, that Bod will one day die—he’ll have to “wait much longer” for other skills that the ghosts have. This reminds readers that, despite his ghostly family and surroundings, Bod is indeed alive and mortal, and he still has to face his death someday. Similarly to how Silas is neither a ghost nor a living human, Bod toes the line between the living and the dead thanks to the Freedom of the Graveyard.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Parents and Guardians Theme Icon
Life and Death Theme Icon
Quotes
One sunny day, Bod is copying inscriptions when a little girl appears and makes faces at him. Bod is impressed and feels dowdy next to her. She wears bright colors, while Bod is in his usual gray sheet. They introduce themselves and the girl—Scarlett—is sad to learn that Bod doesn’t celebrate birthdays. Scarlett decides that Bod is five, like her. She says that her mother is reading at the bottom of the hill and told her to not talk to strangers. Bod, she says, isn’t a stranger—he’s her friend. She asks if she can join him in finding letters on gravestones. Bod feels protective of the headstones but realizes he’ll have more fun with a friend. They search until Scarlett’s mother calls for her. That night, after Scarlett tells her parents about Bod, her parents discuss that imaginary friends are normal for five-year-olds.
Meeting Scarlett, a living girl, is an important moment in Bod’s growth. She introduces Bod to the world outside of the graveyard—the world of the living. It’s telling, then, that she’s dressed so colorfully compared to Bod. This subtly suggests that, compared to death (which is a peaceful, albeit boring state), life is vibrant and exciting. In this passage, the novel also suggests that childhood is a naturally selfish state, which is why Bod feels protective of the headstones. However, as Bod decides to share his graveyard with Scarlett, he takes a small step toward maturity and realizes the importance of generosity and making friends.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Life and Death Theme Icon
Quotes
On sunny days, one of Scarlett’s parents brings her to the graveyard. They sit and read while Scarlett finds Bod. Bod introduces Scarlett to his other friends. She doesn’t care that she can’t see these friends—her parents believe Bod is imaginary, so Scarlett figures Bod has imaginary friends, too. Scarlett is a lonely child since her family moves a lot. Her father teaches particle physics and has to move for each teaching job. As they traverse the graveyard, Bod tells Scarlett about his friends and the tombs. Scarlett tells Bod about airplanes and TV.
As children, both Bod and Scarlett are naturally open and accepting of each other’s differences. It’s not an issue that Bod (seemingly) has imaginary friends, and Bod seems to either not know or not care that Scarlett’s parents think he’s imaginary. This openness allows the children to learn about new worlds they don’t otherwise have access to. For Bod this insight into Scarlett’s world is especially important, since, unbeknownst to him, he’ll one day join the living in the wider world.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
One afternoon, Scarlett asks who’s the oldest person in the graveyard. Bod thinks Caius Pompeius, who came to Britain 100 years after the first Romans, is the oldest. Then, Scarlett asks if they can play in one of the “stone houses.” Bod explains that they’re locked. He can get in because he has the Freedom of the Graveyard, but Scarlett can’t. Scarlett accuses Bod of being mean and storms away, though she suspects she’s being unfair. Over dinner that night, Scarlett asks her parents who inhabited Britain before the Romans. Her mother tells her about the Celts. In the graveyard, Bod asks Silas the same question. Silas affirms that there were people in Britain before the Romans, but Silas is more interested in Bod’s progress with the alphabet. He promises to find Bod someone who will teach him cursive.
Explaining to Scarlett that she doesn’t have the Freedom of the Graveyard is the first time that Bod and Scarlett have to confront their differences. When Silas is more interested in Bod’s education than in talking about the graveyard’s residents, it suggests that he hasn’t forgotten that he must prepare Bod to one day enter the world of the living. Thus, it’s essential to find ghosts willing to teach Bod to read and write—essential skills in the modern world.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Life and Death Theme Icon
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After Silas leaves the graveyard, Bod calls Caius Pompeius and asks if he’s the oldest in the graveyard. Caius says that there’s a grave here for a person who lived before the Celts. Caius points to a hill and says the person is buried inside it. He explains that 300 years after Caius’s death, someone found the entrance to the gravesite and went in, seeking treasure. He came back out with white hair. Then, 200 years ago, someone found the grave again. This time, the man who went into the grave didn’t come back. Caius says he’s not sure who’s in the grave. But since Caius was buried, he’s been able to feel “waiting” deep in the hill.
Though Caius Pompeius wasn’t thrilled to accept Bod into the graveyard at first, he’s now willing to talk to Bod and answer questions. At this point, it seems that Caius—like the other ghosts—accepts that it’s his duty to care for and guide Bod to adulthood. And since Bod sought Caius’s advice specifically, it shows that Bod knows he has a number of people to look after him and answer his questions.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Parents and Guardians Theme Icon
The next day, Scarlett shares what she learned from her parents: that the people before the Romans buried their dead underground with treasure. The graves are called barrows. Bod nods and asks if Scarlett wants to see a barrow. Though Scarlett is nervous, Bod holds up a key and assures Scarlett she’ll be able to enter. Bod leads Scarlett to the Frobisher mausoleum, which is at the top of the barrow and has a secret tunnel down into the hill. When Bod points out the entrance to the tunnel, Scarlett is afraid. Remembering Caius Pompeius’s stories, Bod realizes he can’t assure Scarlett that everything will be fine. Instead, he suggests she stay in the mausoleum and he’ll report back. Instead, Scarlett follows him in.
Having grown up in the world of the living, Scarlett is conditioned to believe that entering graves or being around the dead is scary or dangerous. In contrast, since Bod has grown up in a graveyard amongst dead people, this isn’t a concern he shares. In this sense, even though both Bod and Scarlett are alive, there are still fundamental differences between them. Bod knows that if he wants Scarlett to come with him, he needs to be a good friend and help her feel safe. This is a new experience for her and it’s his responsibility to make it positive.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Life and Death Theme Icon
Good, Evil, and Assumptions Theme Icon
Bod can see in the dark, so he takes Scarlett’s hands and guides her down the steps. He describes paintings and carvings in the walls and then says they’ve come to a big room. Bod can see a slab of stone and a ledge with small objects on it. There’s one old corpse on the floor. Both children hear a “rustling slither” as a dead man, the Indigo Man, walks toward them. He has purple designs on his skin and says that he’s the master of this grave. The Indigo Man tells the children to leave and doesn’t react when Bod says he has the Freedom of the Graveyard. This normally placates ghosts, so Bod asks Scarlett if she can see the Indigo Man. She can.
Earlier, Silas said the Freedom of the Graveyard protects Bod. It’s likely because of this that Bod isn’t afraid of the Indigo Man—as far as Bod knows, nothing in the graveyard can hurt him. And especially since the Indigo Man doesn’t behave like a normal ghost, it’s a clue that something is amiss here. Bod shows that he’s a rational, logical child who doesn’t let fear get the better of him. Because he has this skill, he’s able to talk Scarlett through this scary situation.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Good, Evil, and Assumptions Theme Icon
As the Indigo Man howls menacingly, Scarlett apologizes for saying the ghosts are imaginary. Bod, however, says this one isn’t real—Scarlett can’t see dead people. Scarlett realizes Bod is right and suggests it’s a scarecrow. Bod has never heard of scarecrows, but Scarlett explains that scarecrows are made-up things that look like people but frighten birds. Bod tells the Indigo Man that he’s not scary. At this, the Indigo Man lies down on the rock slab and disappears. Then, Bod and Scarlett hear something huge slithering around the room. The something says, “we are the Sleer.” Bod feels nervous, but Scarlett can’t hear it. She just hears the slithering noise.
By working together, Scarlett and Bod are able to figure out the mystery of the Indigo Man and realize he’s harmless. Each of them has new information to add, thanks to their different upbringings in the mortal world and in the world of the ghosts. Friendship, this suggests, can help people get through difficult situations more easily than if a person acted alone.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
The Sleer says that they “guard and protect” “the resting place of the master.” When Bod points out that the Sleer can only scare him and Scarlett, the Sleer says that fear is its greatest weapon. Noticing a brooch, a cup, and a knife on the ledge, Bod notes that the treasures are silly. The Sleer insists that they guard the treasures for the master. Bod shakes his head, which feels fuzzy, and leads Scarlett out of the barrow and the mausoleum. Then, they hear many people shouting for Scarlett. A police officer descends on the children and leads Scarlett to her parents, who are waiting in the chapel. No one notices Bod. Scarlett tells the adults what she and Bod found, but nobody believes her tale.
Bod again shows that he’s levelheaded and cool under pressure. Fear, Bod already understands, is a powerful tool—but it doesn’t work if he doesn’t give in. The chaos that Scarlett and Bod find when they come back out of the grave drives home that Scarlett isn’t at home in the graveyard like Bod is. Her parents understandably want to make sure that she’s safe—and her true account of what’s in the barrow likely does nothing to placate them. Bod’s world (and his very existence as a boy being raised by ghosts) is too different from their own to even sound plausible.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Parents and Guardians Theme Icon
Life and Death Theme Icon
Good, Evil, and Assumptions Theme Icon
At twilight, Silas finds Bod at the amphitheater. Bod says unprompted that it’s all his fault that Scarlett is in trouble. He tells Silas that they went into the barrow grave, but they only found “a Sleer who scares people.” Three weeks later, Scarlett and her parents return to the graveyard. Once Scarlett’s parents look away, Bod greets Scarlett. Scarlett explains that she and her parents are moving to Scotland, which is a long ways away. She asks if Bod is dead. When he says he isn’t, she says he’ll have to grow up and live in the world someday. Bod insists he has to stay put for his safety. Scarlett calls Bod brave before returning to her parents.
Despite her young age, Scarlett understands an important truth: that every child, even Bod, will have to grow up and leave home one day. For Bod, this means he’ll have to leave the graveyard—a thought that hasn’t occurred to him.
Themes
Community, Identity, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Quotes