Coming of Age and Finding Oneself Theme Analysis

Coraline, Neil Gaiman’s best-known book for children, spans many genres. At once a work of children’s literature, fantasy, and horror, Coraline is also a coming-of-age tale. As the young Coraline Jones traverses a twisted, terrifying realm which mirrors—and corrupts—her own world, her skills as a self-proclaimed “explorer” are put to the ultimate test. Throughout the book, Gaiman positions Coraline’s journey through the world of her “other mother”—an evil entity in disguise as Coraline’s mother which lives in a parallel realm connected to Coraline’s new house—as an allegory for the often-frightening process of coming into one’s own. Through Coraline’s experiences in this world, the novel ultimately suggesting that the endeavor to find one’s true self throughout the years of adolescence is, at times, a horror as dark as any nightmare.

The story of Coraline, dark but simple, lends itself easily to an allegorical interpretation of Coraline’s travails—and her skills as an explorer of unknown places and a finder of lost things—as a metaphor for the uncertainties and trials of adolescence. From the very beginning of the book, Gaiman positions Coraline as an intrepid explorer who spends the days before the start of the new school year roaming around in search of new things. She loves exploring her new house and its grounds, and even whines to her father that she wants to “carry on exploring” when stuck inside on a rainy day. Coraline is even the one to open the mysterious door in her family’s new flat that leads her to the other mother’s world—her insatiable curiosity about the world around her and her desire to understand her place in it are clear from the start.

Coraline’s skills as an explorer are about to come in handy in ways she never could have foreseen. Coraline has a desire to explore the world around her, which translates to a desire to understand herself, as well. Once Coraline visits the other mother’s world and sees what it has in store for her—twisted, strange versions of her own house, parents, and neighbors—she begins to feel apprehensive about staying and returns home. The other mother, incensed by Coraline’s betrayal, kidnaps her parents, forcing Coraline to return to the other world and conquer her fears of it. When confronted with a place that is difficult and unsettling to explore—the other mother’s world, or, in a more allegorical reading of the tale, the realm of adolescence—Coraline initially backs away. There’s something about this realm that repels her, and she wants to return to her own world and to the realm of innocence. Because Coraline is about to start a new school year, Gaiman positions her as being on the cusp of some big changes in her “real” life—changes related to growing older, maturing, and finding out who she really is. These changes frighten Coraline and she tries to retreat, but soon realizes she must confront them head-on.

Coraline’s companion in both her own world and the other mother’s world is a “haughty” black cat, knowledgeable but cryptic about the other mother’s origins and desires. The cat suggests Coraline win the freedom of herself, her parents, and the lost children the other mother has collected over the years by challenging the other mother to a game. Coraline then sets out to find the souls of the lost children (contained in the form of brightly-colored marbles scattered throughout the other mother’s world) and, as she does, must face a series of increasingly horrifying traps laid by the other mother herself. Coraline knows that in order to save herself, she must journey through uncomfortable and even frightening spaces. Gaiman suggests that Coraline’s journey through the other mother’s world and all its attendant horrors is similar to the journey all children must make through adolescence. Most of the terrors Coraline encounters, tellingly, involve the putrefaction, corruption, or alteration of a body or multiple bodies—from the black button eyes on all the creatures within the other mother’s world to the lost children’s transformation into wispy husks to the odious transformation of the other father, the other Miss Spink, and the other Miss Forcible into gelatinous, grublike creatures. The other mother’s world is full of body horror. This reflects the common association of adolescence as a time during which bodies are permanently in flux—as children grow older, they grow, their bodies change, and eruptions of hair and acne can strike at any moment. Coraline’s journey through the body horror of her other mother’s world reflects her own anxieties about the trials of adolescence, and the fear of never finding who she’s supposed to be amidst all the change and confusion.

Upon returning home, Coraline’s trials are not yet over—she still has to trap the other mother’s roving right hand, which was severed when Coraline slammed the door between her world and the other mother’s world on it and which seeks to possess the old black key to the door between the two worlds. However, once this task is completed, Gaiman shows Coraline at peace at last in her new home. As Coraline falls asleep on the night before the new school year begins, she’s full of peace and calm. She’s not worried about making new friends, struggling in her classes, or even dealing with the physical and emotional changes that lie in store for her as her adolescence begins. She has conquered the other mother’s world, found herself in the process, and now feels ready to conquer the challenges the real world presents—even challenges related to the painful process of coming of age.

Coraline’s journey through the other mother’s world contains many potent lessons, but it can also be viewed as an overarching allegory for the disorientation and discomfort of growing up. As Coraline’s particularly frightening reckoning with the demands of adulthood unfolds, Gaiman shows his young readers that their fears, apprehensions, and uncertainties about growing up are normal. Ultimately, Gaiman’s suggestion that the process of finding oneself in the years of one’s adolescence is difficult—and, at times, even frightening—is an empathetic and optimistic one. Though coming of age presents challenges and difficulties, they can be conquered through bravery, compassion, and determination.