Coraline

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2002

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-10

Chapters 11-13

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Food

Food takes a significant role as a motif throughout Coraline. It is used to communicate the theme of not always getting what you want. In the beginning, food is used to communicate Coraline’s dissatisfaction with her life. When Coraline is served her father’s leek and potato stew, she exclaims in disgust that he’s “made a recipe again” (7). She then goes to the freezer and gets “some microwave chips and a microwave mini-pizza” (8) instead. Coraline’s rejection of the food her parents provide shows how she is unsatisfied with what is given to her.

In the other world, food is one of the other mother’s ways of enticing Coraline. When Coraline first arrives, she is served “the best chicken that Coraline had ever eaten” (27), which Coraline compares to her mother’s pre-packaged and frozen chicken and her father’s strangely prepared chicken. After returning to her own world and realizing her parents are missing, Coraline makes the decision not to eat the food in the other world again. She instead loads her dressing gown with apples to get her through her trip. Upon returning, Coraline rejects the other father’s offer of a snack and eats her apple “with relish and an enthusiasm that she did not feel” (59), which causes the other father to look disappointed. This represents the way Coraline is rejecting the offer of having whatever she wants. She understands the drawbacks and makes a point to refuse the offerings of the other world.

After Coraline has run out of apples, the other mother makes Coraline a cheese omelette and serves it with hot chocolate. The other mother encourages Coraline to eat, assuring her that “it won’t hurt” her (90). Coraline enjoys the omelette but rejects the hot chocolate. This helps communicate that, in moderation, it’s okay to have things you want. However, Coraline still understands there is value in not having what she wants. When she faces the other Mr. Bobo, he uses food to try to entice her to stay in the other world. He tells her “[e]very meal will be a thing of joy” and “[n]othing will pass your lips that does not entirely delight you” (117). Coraline responds to this temptation by explaining that she “doesn’t want whatever [she] wants” (118), saying that it wouldn’t mean anything, and it wouldn’t be fun.

In the end, when Coraline is reunited with her parents, the motif returns as Coraline is served homemade pizza. Though the pizza’s homemade crust is doughy in some places and burnt in others, and though it is topped with foods Coraline finds unpleasant, “Coraline ate the entire slice she had been given” (139). Coraline eating the pizza shows that she is content to accept the things she has. She is thankful to have her parents back, even if she doesn’t enjoy their cooking. Coraline’s appreciation for what she has helps communicate the theme that getting everything you want all the time becomes empty and meaningless.

The Stone

The stone with a hole in it that Coraline receives from Miss Spink and Miss Forcible symbolizes the help she receives from her allies. There are moments that tie the stone to almost every single being that offers her help throughout her journey. Coraline receives the stone from Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. Miss Spink tells her it’s “good for bad things, sometimes” (19). When Coraline speaks to the cat after discovering the other world, it refers to the stone as “protection,” suggesting it would “hang onto it, if I were you” (36). Later, the significance of the stone becomes apparent when the ghost children advise Coraline to “[l]ook through the stone” (85). When Coraline takes this advice, the true power of the stone is revealed.

When Coraline looks through the stone, she can discern the false world created by the other mother from the real souls of the ghost children trapped within it. The stone makes the world “gray and colorless” (95) to show the true uninviting nature of the other mother’s realm. When Coraline spots the souls through the stone, they are the “color of an ember in a nursery fireplace” (95). This power enables Coraline to find all three missing souls, thus ensuring her victory in the game against the other mother. Without the stone, Coraline would fail. The stone represents the importance of Coraline’s allies because Coraline might have never discovered the true power of the stone without the cat and the ghost children, and she would never have had the stone if it weren’t for Miss Spink and Miss Forcible looking out for her.

Buttons

Buttons are a repeating image throughout the book as Coraline navigates the other world. Every living thing in the other world has buttons for eyes, except Coraline and the cat, who are both real. The buttons are a symbol of the other mother’s lies and deception. The other mother presents Coraline with a myriad of wonders and joy that Coraline is invited to stay in the other world and keep forever. However, the stipulation, as revealed in Chapter 4, is that Coraline must allow them to sew buttons in her eyes. The other father assures Coraline that “[i]t won’t hurt” (43), but Coraline “knew that when grown-ups told you something wouldn’t hurt it almost always did” (43).

As the plot unfolds, the other mother’s world is revealed to be “illusions, things made by the other mother in a ghastly parody of the real people and real things on the other end of the corridor” (115). Coraline knows that what the other mother has promised her is not what she will get should she agree to stay and have button eyes. One interpretation of the button eyes requirement is that the buttons would prevent Coraline herself from seeing the truth from the lies, clouding her vision with the other mother’s falsehoods. In this way, the buttons worn by the other mother and all her fake characters symbolize the illusive nature of the other mother’s world.