Coraline

“She dreamed of black shapes that slid from place to place, avoiding the light, until they were all gathered together under the moon. Little black shapes with little red eyes and sharp yellow teeth.”

The imagery of the dark shapes is explained later on when Coraline meets the rats tamed by the other Mr. Bobo. With the revelation that the rats are the other mother’s spies, this dream shows the other mother already has her sights set on Coraline.

“‘The message is this. Don’t go through the door.’ He paused. ‘Does that mean anything to you?’

‘No,’ said Coraline.

The old man shrugged. ‘They are funny, the mice. They get things wrong. They got your name wrong, you know. They kept calling you Coraline. Not Caroline. Not Caroline at all.’”

As the old man upstairs, Mr. Bobo, passes along a message from the mice regarding the door to the other world, he explains that the mice can be wrong sometimes. However, he is the one who is wrong about Coraline’s name, foreshadowing that the mice are correct about the dangerous nature of the door.

“In danger? thought Coraline to herself. It sounded exciting. It didn't sound like a bad thing. Not really.”

After having her tea leaves read by Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, Coraline learns that she is potentially in danger. However, because of the mundane life Coraline has led and the neglect she’s received from her parents, Coraline is enticed by the sound of danger. This makes Coraline an easier target for the other mother in the coming chapters.

“Coraline saw some Day-Glo green gloves she liked a lot. Her mother refused to buy them for her, preferring instead to buy white socks, navy blue school underpants, four gray blouses, and a dark grays skirt.”

This moment where Coraline does not get what she wants helps to put a wedge between her and her mother. This shopping trip is the last time Coraline sees her mother before she goes to the other world, and the negative impact of Coraline not getting what she wants helps to entice her into the other world further. This helps to introduce the theme of not getting what you want all the time.

“It was the best chicken that Coraline had ever eaten. Her mother sometimes made chicken, but it was always out of packets or frozen, and was very dry, and it never tasted of anything.”

In this quote, the motif of food begins to take shape. Coraline compares the chicken she eats in the other world to the chicken she usually has to eat at home, showing how distinctly better the food in the other world is. Coraline is enticed by the other mother’s food, showing how tempting the other world is to Coraline.

“‘By the by,’ it said. ‘It was sensible of you to bring protection. I’d hang on to it, if I were you.’

‘Protection?’

‘That’s what I said,’ said the cat.”

As Coraline gets to know the black cat, the beginning of their alliance forms. The cat, in his own way, helps Coraline by mentioning that she is carrying protection with her. It isn’t until later in the book that this protection is revealed to be the stone with a hole in it. This moment hints at both the significance of the stone and the importance of Coraline’s friendship with the cat.

“She put her hands in her pockets. Her fingers closed around the stone with the hole in it.

Her other mother’s hand scuttled off Coraline’s shoulder like a frightened spider.”

The other mother’s reaction to sensing the stone in Coraline’s pocket reveals several things. The first is that the other mother can sense Coraline touching the stone just by touching Coraline, hinting at the otherworldly and supernatural nature of the other mother. The second is that the other mother fears this stone. By pulling her hand away quickly, the other mother shows her weakness to the powers the stone carries.

“‘Because,’ she said, ‘when you’re scared but you still do it anyway, that’s brave.’”

Coraline tells the cat the story of the time her father saved her from a nest of angry wasps. She adds that he had to go back and get his glasses after dropping them. The fact that he knew the wasps were there but went anyway is how Coraline chooses to define bravery. This is a theme throughout the story as Coraline understands the dangers of the other mother and the other world but chooses to try to save her parents and the souls of the ghost children.

“‘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.’”

Coraline’s conversation with the cat here hints at the possible motives of the other mother as well as the otherworldly nature of her. The cat is proven correct about the other mother wanting to eat Coraline when Coraline later discovers the empty husks of children the other mother has already feasted on. This again proves the cat’s importance as an ally to Coraline.

“She put the stone into the pocket of her jeans, and it was as if her head had cleared a little. As if she had come out of some sort of fog.”

Coraline’s possession of the stone is shown to help her from being sucked in by the other mother’s world. Coraline has consumed the other food and slept in the other bed, and she wakes feeling foggy and struggling to remember herself at first. With the help of the stone, the fog clears, and Coraline is sharp enough to face the other mother once more.

“‘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.”

When Coraline expresses a desire to explore, the other father stops her with this information. This reveals the extent of the power of the other mother and the illusory nature of the other world. Everything Coraline sees and interacts with is a creation of the other mother’s. The house is a cleverly designed trap to lure Coraline in and keep her there. This moment also reveals the hierarchy of Coraline’s other parents. Her other father answers to and is afraid of the other mother, and his reaction to revealing that information is one of shame.

“‘There are those,’ it said with a sigh, in tones as smooth as oiled silk, ‘who have suggested that the tendency of a cat to play with its prey is a merciful one—after all, it permits the occasional funny little running snack to escape, from time to time. How often does your dinner get to escape?’”

Here, the cat suggests to Coraline that playing games allows prey to escape from predators from time to time. Coupled with the cat’s suggestion that Coraline play a game with the other mother and the suspicion that the other mother wants to eat Coraline, this suggestion becomes the key to Coraline winning her freedom. This is a direct metaphor for Coraline’s upcoming battle against the other mother.

“That is why we could not leave here, when we died. She kept us, and she fed on us, until now we’ve nothing left of ourselves, only snakeskins and spider husks. Find our secret hearts, young mistress.”

This quote both reveals the fate that awaits Coraline and ups the stakes should she fail to escape. Not only must Coraline now free herself and her parents, but she has been tasked with saving the souls of the other mother’s previous victims as well. Should Coraline fail, she faces the same fate as the ghost children inside the mirror room, wasting away, forgotten, empty shells of themselves.

“Through the stone, the world was gray and colorless, like a pencil drawing. Everything in it was gray—no, not quite everything: something glinted on the floor, something the color of an ember in a nursery fireplace, the color of a scarlet-and-orange tulip nodding in the May sun.”

Using the newly discovered power of the stone, Coraline discovers the first of the three souls she’s seeking is disguised as a marble. This is the most significant help the stone provides her, which fulfills the foreshadowing that hinted at its relevance building up to this moment. With the stone, Coraline has new hope in finding the lost children’s souls and defeating the other mother.

“But there was nothing that she could think of as scary as having it look at her. Her heart pounded in her chest. She took another step forward.”

Here, Coraline demonstrates her own definition of bravery. Coraline is terrified of what might happen if she disturbs the strange nest that holds the creature that is the fused together other versions of Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. Still, she knows she must press on to retrieve another one of the children’s souls, so she keeps moving toward the nest. This exemplifies Coraline’s interpretation of bravery and its relation to fear.

“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.”

In this quote, Coraline is coming to understand the other mother and her motivations more. The other mother tells Coraline over and over that she loves Coraline, but this is the first time Coraline acknowledges that it’s true. Coraline knows that the love is not a motherly love, however, which keeps her strong in the face of the affection.

“Run, child. Leave this place. She wants me to hurt you, to keep you here forever, so that you can never finish the game and she will win. She is pushing me so hard to hurt you. I cannot fight her.”

When Coraline discovers the discarded and deformed other father in the cellar of the empty flat, she realizes the cruelty of the other mother. The other father, who was a creation of the other mother, is left abandoned by her with the sole assignment to make sure Coraline rots down there with him. The other father, who has a will of his own but not the power to act on it, warns Coraline of the other mother’s attempts to thwart her progress. This moment shows the heartlessness with which the other mother treats her possessions and is one of the other mother’s several attempts to play unfairly.

“And then Coraline found herself wondering why the other mother would have placed a snowglobe on the drawing-room mantelpiece; for the mantelpiece, in Coraline’s world, was quite bare. As soon as she asked herself the question, she realized that there was actually an answer.”

As Coraline tries to comfort herself by reminding herself that everything the other mother has created has just been a distorted version of things that actually exist, she finds herself wondering about the snowglobe. This moment results in Coraline knowing where her parents have wound up because there is no snowglobe in Coraline’s real drawing-room. This moment is significant to the eventual resolution of the conflict, and it shows Coraline’s cunning and clever nature.

“Coraline sighed. ‘You really don’t understand, do you?’ she said. ‘I don’t want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn’t mean anything. What then?’”

As Coraline speaks to the other Mr. Bobo, Mr. Bobo attempts one last time to entice Coraline into staying in the other world. However, Coraline realizes that all the promise and good things the other world offers her are empty. This is a moment of character growth, as Coraline starts the story as a girl never getting anything she wants. After being handed whatever her heart desires, Coraline realizes how unfulfilling it is and understands the importance of not getting what she wants all the time. This moment emphasizes the theme of not getting whatever you want.

“‘Why don’t you open it?’ said Coraline. ‘They’ll be there, all right.’

It was her only way home, she knew. But it all depended on the other mother’s needing to gloat, needing not only to win but to show that she had won.”

Coraline, having now learned a lot about the other mother’s nature, puts all her faith in the other mother gloating. Coraline knows her parents aren’t behind the door, but she encourages the other mother to open it with false confidence, giving Coraline a chance to escape. This tense moment that leads into the climax of the book shows Coraline’s cunning and her ability to outsmart her adversary.

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

As Coraline makes her escape from the other world with the souls of the children and the snowglobe containing her parents, she begs them for help closing the door, fighting against the strength of the other mother. These people are not fully corporeal, but they lend all their strength to Coraline and help her manage to shut the door, finally putting a barrier between herself and the other mother. This climactic moment emphasizes the theme of the importance of having allies.

“Dinner that night was pizza, and even though it was homemade by her father (so the crust was alternatively thick and doughy and raw, or too thin and burnt), and even though he had put slices of green pepper on it, along with little meatballs and, of all things, pineapple chunks, Coraline ate the entire slice she had been given. Well, she ate everything except for the pineapple chunks.”

With Coraline reunited with her parents, she has a new appreciation for the food they cook. Coraline eats mostly microwave pizzas instead of the food they cook, but tonight they have made pizza. Even though Coraline finds the crust and the toppings unappetizing, she understands the importance of not getting everything she wants. By eating (almost) every bite, Coraline shows that she appreciates what she has.

“‘Well, can’t you give me a clue?’ asked Coraline. ‘Isn’t there something you can tell me?’

‘The beldam swore by her good right hand,’ said the tall girl, ‘but she lied.’”

Having defeated the other mother, Coraline dreams of a picnic with the children she rescued. After having a good time eating and playing with them, the mood darkens as they warn her that she isn’t through with the other mother yet. Here, Coraline begs for a hint of what to look for or how to finally defeat her. This foreshadows Coraline’s discovery that the other mother’s right hand has followed her through the door and is pursuing her for possession of the key.