The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Epilogue
Themes
All Themes Childhood vs. Adulthood Memory, Perception, and Reality Knowledge and Identity Fear, Bravery, and Friendship
Quotes
Characters
All Characters The Narrator Lettie Hempstock Ursula Monkton / Skarthatch of the Keep Old Mrs. Hempstock Mrs. Ginnie Hempstock The Narrator’s Father The Hunger Birds The Opal Miner The Narrator’s Mother The Narrator’s Sister Ocean Monster
Symbols
All Symbols The Narrator’s Bedroom Cats Food The Ocean
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The Ocean at the End of the Lane

by

Neil Gaiman
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The Opal Miner Character Analysis

The opal miner is a South African man who made his fortune mining opals in Australia. He comes to England and rents the narrator’s bedroom; his reason for coming to England is never entirely clear. The narrator finds the opal miner callous—though the man does gift the narrator and his sister raw opals—as the opal miner’s taxi accidentally hits and kills the narrator’s kitten, Fluffy. He immediately replaces Fluffy with a cantankerous tomcat named Monster, who is in no way a replacement for the narrator’s affectionate kitten. Things go from bad to worse when the opal miner steals the family’s car and commits suicide in it after gambling away all his and his friends’ money. It’s implied that the opal miner is connected to the supernatural parallel universe in the novel, as his suicide somehow creates the opportunity for the monster Ursula to enter the mortal world.

The Opal Miner Quotes in The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The The Ocean at the End of the Lane quotes below are all either spoken by The Opal Miner or refer to The Opal Miner. 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:
Childhood vs. Adulthood Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

I missed Fluffy. I knew you could not simply replace something alive, but I dared not grumble to my parents about it. They would have been baffled at my upset: after all, if my kitten had been killed, it had also been replaced. The damage had been made up.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Ursula Monkton / Skarthatch of the Keep, The Narrator’s Father, The Opal Miner, The Narrator’s Mother, Fluffy, Monster
Related Symbols: Cats
Childhood vs. Adulthood Theme Icon
Fear, Bravery, and Friendship Theme Icon
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“They need to finish this up. It’s what they do: they’re the carrion kind, the vultures of the void. Their job. Clean up the last remnants of the mess. Nice and neat. Pull you from the world and it will be as if you never existed. Just go with it. It won’t hurt.”

I stared at him. Adults only ever said that when it, whatever it happened to be, was going to hurt so much.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Opal Miner (speaker), Lettie Hempstock, The Hunger Birds
Childhood vs. Adulthood Theme Icon
Memory, Perception, and Reality Theme Icon
Page Number: 175
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Opal Miner Quotes in The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The The Ocean at the End of the Lane quotes below are all either spoken by The Opal Miner or refer to The Opal Miner. 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:
Childhood vs. Adulthood Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

I missed Fluffy. I knew you could not simply replace something alive, but I dared not grumble to my parents about it. They would have been baffled at my upset: after all, if my kitten had been killed, it had also been replaced. The damage had been made up.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Ursula Monkton / Skarthatch of the Keep, The Narrator’s Father, The Opal Miner, The Narrator’s Mother, Fluffy, Monster
Related Symbols: Cats
Childhood vs. Adulthood Theme Icon
Fear, Bravery, and Friendship Theme Icon
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“They need to finish this up. It’s what they do: they’re the carrion kind, the vultures of the void. Their job. Clean up the last remnants of the mess. Nice and neat. Pull you from the world and it will be as if you never existed. Just go with it. It won’t hurt.”

I stared at him. Adults only ever said that when it, whatever it happened to be, was going to hurt so much.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Opal Miner (speaker), Lettie Hempstock, The Hunger Birds
Childhood vs. Adulthood Theme Icon
Memory, Perception, and Reality Theme Icon
Page Number: 175
Explanation and Analysis:
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