The Great Alone

by

Kristin Hannah

Coraline (Cora) Allbright Character Analysis

Coraline Allbright, or Cora, is the mother of Leni Allbright and the wife of Ernt Allbright. Cora drops out of school to live with Ernt and have his child at the age of 16. Although they don’t live luxuriously, Cora and Ernt are happy together until Ernt leaves for the Vietnam War. While Ernt is away, Cora lives in hippie communes and often spends her time protesting the war. When Ernt returns, he is a changed man. Before long, he starts abusing Cora. Despite Ernt’s behavior, Cora loves him and stands by his side. She is convinced that he is sick and wants to do whatever she can to make him happy. Accordingly, she often gives in to her husband’s demands and puts too much trust in him, much to Leni’s chagrin. During her time in Alaska, Cora becomes tough and learns to survive on her own. She continues to put up with her husband’s violence and does whatever she can to pacify him. However, one day Ernt goes too far and begins to physically abuse Leni. Afraid for her daughter’s life, Cora shoots Ernt twice in the back. Afterwards, she expects to go to jail, but Leni convinces her to cover up the crime. Together, Cora and Leni dispose of Ernt’s body and then flee to Seattle to live under different identities. While in Seattle, Cora lives a relatively normal life, though she is haunted by how much she believes she’s screwed up her daughter’s life. After living in Seattle for several years, Cora learns that she has stage four lung cancer, likely a result of her constant smoking. Eventually, Cora’s cancer kills her, but before she dies, she gives Leni a signed confession for Ernt’s murder and tells her to return to Alaska.

Coraline (Cora) Allbright Quotes in The Great Alone

The The Great Alone quotes below are all either spoken by Coraline (Cora) Allbright or refer to Coraline (Cora) Allbright. 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:
Trauma and Violence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

That spring, rain fell in great sweeping gusts that rattled the rooftops. Water found its way into the smallest cracks and undermined the sturdiest foundations. Chunks of land that had been steady for generations fell like slag heaps on the roads below, taking houses and cars and swimming pools down with them. Trees fell over, crashed into power lines; electricity was lost. Rivers flooded their banks, washed across yards, ruined homes. People who loved each other snapped and fights erupted as the water rose and the rain continued.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

Mama was engaged in a continual quest to “find” herself. In the past few years, she’d tried EST and the human potential movement, spiritual training, Unitarianism. Even Buddhism. She’d cycled through them all, cherry-picked pieces and bits. Mostly, Leni thought, Mama had come away with T-shirts and sayings. Things like, What is, is, and what isn’t, isn’t. None of it seemed to amount to much.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright
Page Number: 4-5
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Your dad cleared out our savings account. And they won’t give me a credit card unless your father or my father cosigns.” She lit up a cigarette. “Sweet Jesus, it’s 1974. I have a job. I make money. And a woman can’t get a credit card without a man’s signature. It’s a man’s world, baby girl.” She started the car and sped down the street, turning onto the freeway.

Related Characters: Coraline (Cora) Allbright (speaker), Leni Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 18-19
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

“Two kinds of folks come up to Alaska, Cora. People running to something and people running away from something. The second kind—you want to keep your eye out for them. And it isn’t just the people you need to watch out for, either. Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.”

Related Characters: Marge Birdsall (speaker), Coraline (Cora) Allbright
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

He picked out the small, plump heart and held it up to Leni. Blood leaked between his fingers. “You’re the hunter. Eat the heart.”

“Ernt, please,” Mama said, “we’re not savages.”

“That’s exactly what we are,” he said in a voice as cold as the wind at their back. “Eat it.”

Related Characters: Coraline (Cora) Allbright (speaker), Ernt Allbright (speaker), Leni Allbright
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Leni saw his love for her, shining through his regret. It eroded her anger, made her question everything again. He didn’t want to hurt Mama, didn’t mean to. He was sick …

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“I love you,” Mama said, and she was crying now, too, and suddenly Leni understood the reality of her world, the truth that Alaska, in all its beautiful harshness, had revealed. They were trapped, by environment and finances, but mostly by the sick, twisted love that bound her parents together.

Related Characters: Coraline (Cora) Allbright (speaker), Leni Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:

Leni sighed. How was Mama’s unshakable belief in Dad any different than his fear of Armageddon? Did adults just look at the world and see what they wanted to see, think what they wanted to think? Did evidence and experience mean nothing?

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

Leni felt something then, a seismic shift in her thinking; like spring breakup, a changing of the landscape, a breaking away that was violent, immediate. She wasn’t afraid of this man anymore. Or if she was, the fear was submerged too deeply to register. All she felt was hatred.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

In the silence, Leni wondered if one person could ever really save another, or if it was the kind of thing you had to do for yourself.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 400
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

I guess my mama was right about love. As screwed up as she is, she understands the durability and lunacy of it. You can’t make yourself fall in love, I suppose, and you can’t make yourself fall out of it.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright (speaker), Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 450
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

“It’s been years,” her mother said. “Look at her. She’s happy. Why must we keep having this conversation?”

Cora wanted to agree. It was what she said to herself on a daily basis. Look, she’s happy. Sometimes, she was able to almost wholly believe it. And then there were days like today. She didn’t know what caused the change. Weather, maybe. Old habits. The kind of corrosive fear that once it moved in, pitted your bones and stayed forever.

Related Characters: Mrs. Golliher   (speaker), Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright
Page Number: 461
Explanation and Analysis:
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Coraline (Cora) Allbright Quotes in The Great Alone

The The Great Alone quotes below are all either spoken by Coraline (Cora) Allbright or refer to Coraline (Cora) Allbright. 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:
Trauma and Violence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

That spring, rain fell in great sweeping gusts that rattled the rooftops. Water found its way into the smallest cracks and undermined the sturdiest foundations. Chunks of land that had been steady for generations fell like slag heaps on the roads below, taking houses and cars and swimming pools down with them. Trees fell over, crashed into power lines; electricity was lost. Rivers flooded their banks, washed across yards, ruined homes. People who loved each other snapped and fights erupted as the water rose and the rain continued.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

Mama was engaged in a continual quest to “find” herself. In the past few years, she’d tried EST and the human potential movement, spiritual training, Unitarianism. Even Buddhism. She’d cycled through them all, cherry-picked pieces and bits. Mostly, Leni thought, Mama had come away with T-shirts and sayings. Things like, What is, is, and what isn’t, isn’t. None of it seemed to amount to much.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright
Page Number: 4-5
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Your dad cleared out our savings account. And they won’t give me a credit card unless your father or my father cosigns.” She lit up a cigarette. “Sweet Jesus, it’s 1974. I have a job. I make money. And a woman can’t get a credit card without a man’s signature. It’s a man’s world, baby girl.” She started the car and sped down the street, turning onto the freeway.

Related Characters: Coraline (Cora) Allbright (speaker), Leni Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 18-19
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3 Quotes

“Two kinds of folks come up to Alaska, Cora. People running to something and people running away from something. The second kind—you want to keep your eye out for them. And it isn’t just the people you need to watch out for, either. Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.”

Related Characters: Marge Birdsall (speaker), Coraline (Cora) Allbright
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

He picked out the small, plump heart and held it up to Leni. Blood leaked between his fingers. “You’re the hunter. Eat the heart.”

“Ernt, please,” Mama said, “we’re not savages.”

“That’s exactly what we are,” he said in a voice as cold as the wind at their back. “Eat it.”

Related Characters: Coraline (Cora) Allbright (speaker), Ernt Allbright (speaker), Leni Allbright
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Leni saw his love for her, shining through his regret. It eroded her anger, made her question everything again. He didn’t want to hurt Mama, didn’t mean to. He was sick …

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 159
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“I love you,” Mama said, and she was crying now, too, and suddenly Leni understood the reality of her world, the truth that Alaska, in all its beautiful harshness, had revealed. They were trapped, by environment and finances, but mostly by the sick, twisted love that bound her parents together.

Related Characters: Coraline (Cora) Allbright (speaker), Leni Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 196
Explanation and Analysis:

Leni sighed. How was Mama’s unshakable belief in Dad any different than his fear of Armageddon? Did adults just look at the world and see what they wanted to see, think what they wanted to think? Did evidence and experience mean nothing?

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Ernt Allbright
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22 Quotes

Leni felt something then, a seismic shift in her thinking; like spring breakup, a changing of the landscape, a breaking away that was violent, immediate. She wasn’t afraid of this man anymore. Or if she was, the fear was submerged too deeply to register. All she felt was hatred.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 385
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23 Quotes

In the silence, Leni wondered if one person could ever really save another, or if it was the kind of thing you had to do for yourself.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 400
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 26 Quotes

I guess my mama was right about love. As screwed up as she is, she understands the durability and lunacy of it. You can’t make yourself fall in love, I suppose, and you can’t make yourself fall out of it.

Related Characters: Leni Allbright (speaker), Coraline (Cora) Allbright, Matthew Walker
Page Number: 450
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

“It’s been years,” her mother said. “Look at her. She’s happy. Why must we keep having this conversation?”

Cora wanted to agree. It was what she said to herself on a daily basis. Look, she’s happy. Sometimes, she was able to almost wholly believe it. And then there were days like today. She didn’t know what caused the change. Weather, maybe. Old habits. The kind of corrosive fear that once it moved in, pitted your bones and stayed forever.

Related Characters: Mrs. Golliher   (speaker), Leni Allbright, Coraline (Cora) Allbright
Page Number: 461
Explanation and Analysis: