Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Childhood vs. Adulthood
Memory, Perception, and Reality
Knowledge and Identity
Fear, Bravery, and Friendship
Summary
Analysis
The narrator has unsettling dreams that make him feel as though he has “to wake up or die,” but he can’t remember them. He wants to go back to yesterday, before Ursula showed up. The narrator looks out the window and sees a perplexing harvest moon. Old Mrs. Hempstock is pacing outside, the sight of which comforts the narrator. He goes back to bed and wakes in the morning. The narrator puts on the strange 18th-century clothes the best he can, but the shoes don’t fit. The kitten follows him into the hallway and then shows him the way to the kitchen. Ginnie directs the narrator to his breakfast and says that Lettie is out gathering supplies to send Ursula home.
It’s telling that the narrator keys in on the fact that the moon looks a bit weird. This is likely one of the few obvious ways in which he can tell that the Hempstock farm is more than it seems—given what Lettie said last night about Old Mrs. Hempstock simply “liking” the moon to be full, it’s possible that Old Mrs. Hempstock can control lots of things about the farm. But the narrator asks few questions, so he’s never able to answer this for sure.
Themes
The narrator says he hates Ursula. Ginnie says that she doesn’t—Ursula does what her nature dictates she should, and she’s trying to give people what they want. When the narrator points out that she hasn’t given him anything, Ginnie says it’s “dangerous to be a door.” She heads out and the narrator turns to his porridge. Lettie arrives a bit later with a shopping basket, dirty, scratched, and miserable. The narrator looks in the basket and sees broken toys. Lettie tosses in the jar containing the wormhole and tells the narrator he can stay here, but he insists on going with Lettie. Lettie looks unhappy and suggests they go to the ocean. On the bench, the narrator says that the Hempstocks aren’t people, but Lettie shrugs and says that no one’s appearance ever matches what they are inside.
Ginnie makes the case that they should be treating Ursula (and for that matter, everyone else in the world) with compassion. Ursula isn’t really being malicious; she’s just doing what fleas are supposed to do. For that matter, she’s only so interested in the narrator because he was her way into this world—Ginnie rationalizes this by telling the narrator that it’s always “dangerous to be a door.” To Ginnie, this all makes sense. But to the narrator, who’s the target of Ursula’s ire, this seems far too generous. This speaks to the narrator’s youth and his inability to empathize with adults at his young age.
Themes
The narrator asks if she’s a monster like Ursula, but Lettie doesn’t think so. She says that monsters look like all sorts of things. When the narrator suggests that people should be afraid of Ursula, Lettie asks the narrator what he thinks Ursula is afraid of. The narrator doesn’t think Ursula is afraid of anything—she’s a grownup and a monster. Lettie says that monsters are monsters because they’re afraid and then says that while grownups might look confident on the outside, they all look like children on the inside. Really, there aren’t any grownups—except for Old Mrs. Hempstock. The narrator wonders if this is true, and he points out that Lettie’s ocean is just a pond. Lettie just says that she knows what Ursula is afraid of—and she’s afraid of them too.
Again, as far as the narrator is concerned, monsters and adults aren’t afraid of anything. In his experience, they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, and there are no consequences for their actions. Lettie, however, proposes that both monsters and adults are more like children than the narrator gives them credit for. Adults and monsters experience fear, just like children do. With this, she encourages the narrator to empathize with Ursula, even as she’s trying to turn his life upside-down.
Themes
The narrator collects his pajamas and toothbrush in a bag. Lettie promises that Ursula won’t get him and they head up the lane. They take a shortcut, and Lettie announces that there are no “varmints” yet. She won’t explain what these are. She does explain sadly that the Hempstocks aren’t witches and don’t do spells; the things in the shopping bag are just boundary markers. Lettie puts a marble in the dirt and then walks the property line, dropping more toys. She explains that these items will keep Ursula from leaving the property—they want her to go home, not away. The narrator is confused, but he trusts Lettie.
At this point, it’s somewhat unclear why Lettie won’t tell the narrator what the varmints are. It’s possible that she’s trying to protect him from this knowledge, but if this is the case, it means that the narrator cannot effectively calculate what risks he’s taking as he follows Lettie. It’s also significant that Lettie specifies that they want to send Ursula home, not just away. It’s not enough to make Ursula leave the narrator’s family alone—Lettie has to do what’s best for Ursula and for all humans, as she has a responsibility to help others.
Themes
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Lettie and the narrator enter the house. The narrator’s sister stops practicing piano and asks what’s going on. The narrator introduces Lettie and Lettie drops a broken xylophone into the mess of toys. They head up the stairs to see Ursula. Lettie explains that Ursula is trying to make the world more comfortable for herself by making other people hurt. She places a toy on each step, and at the top, she promises the narrator that Ursula won’t put him in the attic. Lettie pushes open the bedroom door. Ursula lies naked on the bed, but the room is far more interesting to the narrator than Ursula’s body—strips of cloth hang everywhere. Lettie tells Ursula to leave, but Ursula sits up and says she’s not going anywhere. The narrator thinks she’s pretty, and the adult narrator wonders if he’d think the same now.
Because of his youth and his sexual immaturity, the narrator isn’t much interested in seeing a naked woman. Because of his youth, then, it’s easier for him to take note of what else is in his former bedroom. The adult narrator’s musing about what he’d think now speaks to the way that time and age can change how someone tackles a situation like this. The fact that this encounter takes place in the narrator’s old bedroom suggests again that in many ways, the narrator’s childhood is over. The safety of childhood has been pushed out by a powerful woman and the adult world she represents.
Themes
Ursula scolds Lettie for trying to bind her without knowing her name, but Lettie holds out the jam jar. She says that they can get Ursula to a place where she’ll be happy. Ursula stands and seems adult, old, and terrifying. She says she’s happy here, and the strips of cloth fall toward the narrator and Lettie. The cloth sticks to the narrator’s hand, and his hand bleeds when he pulls it away. Cloth attaches to him, binding him like a mummy. He stops fighting and listens to Ursula wonder what to do with Lettie. Lettie says that Ursula never wondered why there aren’t other things like her in this world, and she refers to Ursula as “Skarthatch of the Keep.” Lettie says that Old Mrs. Hempstock calls other creatures “varmints,” which are always hungry.
Though the narrator thinks that Ursula seems particularly adult and frightening, the way that Ursula talks to Lettie and behaves in general seems a bit childish. She selfishly wants to be in this place that makes her happy and wants to make Lettie feel small and unimportant. But although Ursula has power, Lettie gains the upper hand when she pulls out Ursula’s true name, Skarthatch of the Keep. With this name, Lettie is able to make Ursula see that she can’t hide and can’t be successful here—especially with the hungry varmints coming.
Themes
As Lettie says that she found Ursula’s real name this morning, Ursula runs away, terrified. Lettie pulls the cloth strips off of the narrator—they don’t hurt—and explains that “poor” Ursula is afraid and trying to run. Lettie admits she’s a bit afraid too. She and the narrator leave the room, and at the top of the stairs, there’s a rip of sorts where the toy was. The gray matter in the rip hurts the narrator’s eyes. He asks about the varmints, but Lettie just says that she’s afraid of varmints. She says she’s not afraid of Ursula; fleas are prideful, not dangerous. Lettie tells the narrator about doing away with a flea in Cromwell’s day—they got him out before the hunger birds arrived. The hunger birds, she says, are the varmints. They’re like cleaners. The narrator doesn’t understand why he should be afraid of cleaners.
Again, it’s telling that Lettie describes Ursula as “poor.” She pities Ursula and legitimately wants to help her; she doesn’t see her as a power-hungry adult. This makes Lettie seem like even less of a child, especially in comparison to the narrator. The narrator doesn’t seem to entirely buy that Ursula is worthy of pity. Then, seeing the gray rips in his reality and learning about the hunger birds makes the narrator feel even more out of his element. He doesn’t have the information he needs to gauge what’s going on, or why Ursula and Lettie would be afraid.
Themes
