Blog On “ Coraline”

By: Neil Gaiman

     I recently finished the book “ Coraline” by, Neil Gaiman, for my book club.  Our book club chose to read horror books, and I picked Coraline as my book.  Surprisingly the theme in “ Coraline” seemed to be the importance of family, not violence or any other usual horror story theme.  Through most of the book the main character, Coraline, was fighting to get her parents back.  Through this tough journey she learned not to take people for granted, especially her parents.  When she finally wins her parents back, she loves them and respects them like never before.  

     Before Coraline lost her parents, she was disrespectful to them and very ungrateful of them.  For example her dad would make “ special recipes” and she would be disgusted, and make herself frozen pizza.  This shows she’s ungrateful because her dad takes the time out of his day to make Coraline and her mom food, and Coraline doesn’t even try it.  Also when Coraline’s mom offers Coraline to come to the supermarket with her, Coraline says no because she’s “ had enough” of her mom.  That’s not only disrespectful, but also shows how ungrateful she is to have  two parents that love and care for her.  Before she loses her parents, Caroline doesn’t even realize how lucky she is to have two parents!

     This changes when she lost her parents, and when she got them back.  When she realized that her parents were missing, Coraline got scared.  All her life her parents protected her, and never left her alone for long periods of time, now she was all alone.  She was also very sad.  She missed the warmth of her parents, and her dad’s recipes.  You could tell she felt awful in how she  treated her parents because she was always regretting being rude to them.  So when Coraline won her parents back she made a change and started treating her parents better.  She even decided to try one of her dad’s recipes, and she liked it!

     Coraline always loved her parents, but at first decided not to believe she did.  Once they went missing she showed she needed them and loved them.  If they had gone permanently missing Coraline would have been distraught.  In the end Coraline learned the importance of family.