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Noah Weinstein
Professor Lewis
English 115
21 October 2015
The Other Coraline
Maturity - the state, fact, or period of being fully developed; full-grown. In 2002, Neil
Gaiman wrote the terrifying novella, Coraline, the story of a young girl who enters an alternate
world led by another version of her mother, in order to escape her mundane life. However, when
the other mother kidnaps Coralines real parents, Coraline realizes the other mother wants to possess her forever and Coraline must gain the confidence to save her parents as well as herself from
the alternate chaos. The story was praised by critics for not only being a cautionary tale of being
careful for what you wish for, but also a heroines journey of growing and gaining confidence. In
2009, stop-motion animation director, Henry Selick adapted Coraline into a film, keeping the
basic storyline the same, but switching many elements around to strengthen the narrative, including increasing the roles of Coralines real and other parents as Coralines major influences. Coraline matures from girl to young woman stronger in the film adaptation as opposed to the book
because of her difficult relationship with her parents and her courage to explore the unknown.
One of Coralines strongest traits is her passion to explore. Throughout the book and film,
she explores locations such as an abandoned well around her apartment, to an entirely different

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version of the world she inhabits. The difference between the two tellings of the story is that in
the book, she is foolishly innocent. When she first visits the other world in Gaimans novel,
Coraline automatically accepts the other world for how it is and the other mother for who she is.
Im your other mother, said the woman. Go and tell your other father that lunch is ready, She
opened the door to the oven. Suddenly Coraline realized how hungry she was. It smelled wonderful. Well, go on. Coraline went down the hall, to where her fathers study was. (pg. 26).
Coraline blindly follows the other mother without even asking about any of the other mothers
bizarre features such as her pale skin and button eyes, and is won over immediately only because
she gives her a nicer dinner than her real parents.
The movie on the other hand has Coraline hesitant on the world at first. Youre not my
mother, my mother doesnt have bu-bu-bu-. Bu-bu-bu-buttons (chuckles) Do you like them?
Im your other mother silly. Now go tell your other father that suppers ready. (Coraline looks
befuddled) Well go on, hes in his study. (Coraline walks to the study even more befuddled).
Coraline took caution instantly and even thought it was a dream at first. It wasnt until the other
mother healed her poison oak infested arm with mud that she realized it wasnt a dream and began to trust the other mother and the other world.
Unlike the book, the film portrays Coraline as more knowledgeable and expressive in her
adventures. When Coraline searches for the well in the opening of the film, she does so by dowsing; an ancient game where one uses a stick or rod to locate things such as underground water or
hidden metal. In order to do this, she picks a branch off of a nearby bush and uses her extensive
imagination to dowse, making her incredibly resourceful. When Coraline is exploring her apartment in the book, she is very passive in her exploration. She counted everything blue

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(153). She counted the windows (21). She counted the doors (14). Of the doors that she found,
thirteen opened and closed (pg.6). Coraline only examines the rooms and hallways on a surface
level, being too innocent to examine anything about the floor other than how many windows and
doors there were.
The film however has her not only explore the house but also experience it to its fullest.
This included playing with a hallway rug, swatting bugs in an old shower, turning the shower on,
only to find disgusting water coming out, and even temporarily shutting down the power in the
house, almost giving her father a heart attack in the process, due to all his work being saved on
his computer. Despite these being small actions, it demonstrates Coralines determination to explore the ins and outs of her environment right in the beginning of the film as opposed to the
book where her exploration skills are weak.
The relationship between Coraline and her mother is also explored with more depth in the
film as opposed to the book. In the book, Coralines mother is portrayed as overworked and annoyed, while Coraline is portrayed as an innocent child who remains unaffected by her mothers
negative behavior. In the film, Coraline and her mother have a similar personality, both being
very irritated when situations dont go ones way and instantly giving in to an emotional state of
frustration, whether that be Coraline complaining to her mother about why she cant play in the
rain, to her mother being aggravated by having to explain to Coraline that she doesnt cook because it is her dads job to do so. The two characters possess the same shadow which are inferiorities within ones character, revealing an emotional nature that is often possessive, identified by
psychologist Carl Jung. Jung states the shadow can to some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, experience shows that there are certain features which offer the

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most obstinate resistance to moral control and prove almost impossible to influence.(Jung, 2).
Coraline and her mother lack the ability to bond as a family and show affection that a mother and
daughter can have for one another, which drives a wedge between the two, and affects their outlook negatively on everyday life. This can be seen when Coraline and her mother go to the store
to get school supplies. Coraline nudges her mom to buy her some colorful gloves. Her mom tells
her to put them back but Coraline gets more aggravated and tells her, My other mother would
get them. Her mother, exasperated, replies saying Maybe, she should buy all your clothes.
The father is also problematic in the film. While he is portrayed as a rundown workaholic
in the book and film, the film expands on his role by making him a submissive and unconfident
person. When the father is about to go the publisher of the parents new garden catalogue, the
father is hesitant and asks the mother You sure you wont come? but the mother replies Dont
fret Charlie, theyll love the new catalogue, at least theyll love my chapters. This shows the
fathers lack of self-confidence and his constant dependence on his wife, sometimes in front of
his own daughter. The father does however play with Coraline occasionally, calling her a Little
Day Dreamer before he heads off to the publisher. Despite being her father, Coraline reacts negatively to his gestures, not trusting him because of his lack of confidence and inability to be a
great role model.
This lack of family love can be seen in Coraline in almost every scene where she talks to
someone in the real world, whether that be shouting at her friend Wybie for scaring her with his
skeleton mask to being irritated by her neighbor Mr. Bobinsky, constantly mispronouncing

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Coralines name as Caroline. The real reason for her aggravation is she felt unloved and wanted
someone that projected their love for her, since both of her parents fail to do that well.
This defined lack of love from her parents, particularly her mother is what strengthens the
role of the other mother in the film. The other mother reverses the shadow of the real mother and
plays to Coralines shadow of insecurities to possess her. She hopes to offer her the ideal maternal archetype that Coraline never had, a mother that nurtures her child. It is because of this maternal archetype that Coraline falls for the other mothers trap and because Throughout the narrative, she often discounts the warnings of other characters such as Mr. Bobos mice, the black
cat, Misses Spink and Forcible. (Wehler, 3). While the book also has the other mother act as an
ideal mother that nurtures Coraline, the real mother and Coraline lack the similar characterization
that drove Coraline to the other mother. Instead, the book designates the mother as ignorant and
nothing more. But Mum, everybody at schools got gray blouses and everything. Nobodys got
green gloves. I could be the only one. Her mother ignored her, she was talking to the shop assistant. (pg. 21) Because the character isnt as clearly defined, it gives the other mother less dislikable traits of the character to bend and use to win Coralines heart.
Despite reversing most characters personalities, a character whose role the other mother
doesnt change in the book and film is the other father. The film and book portray the other father
as a fun but hopeless victim in the other mothers grand scheme and like the father in the real
world, is submissive and talentless. In the real world, he is terrible at cooking, with Coraline constantly calling his food slime. In the other world, every talented creative work he does is because of his robotic gloves that control his hands and guard him from telling Coraline the truth
about the other mother. The book barely touches upon the fathers role both in the real and other

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world and relegates him to simply being ignorant and overworked and the other father is portrayed as an innocent victim that only drops hints that he hopes for her to escape. There is only
one key. Only one door, said the other father. Hush, said the other mother. You must not
bother our darling Coralines head with such trivialities, (pg.62). The other fathers role is expanded in the film by not only dropping hints of the despicable other mother to Coraline but even
redeeming himself by breaking free from the other mothers control to save one of the ghost
children souls for Coraline. This character is one of the first signs of danger in the other world
for Coraline and she eventually becomes disenchanted, longing for a return to her real world
and her real parents.(Perdigao, 1)
It is because of the other mother and the other father that Coraline begins to appreciate
her real parents. Despite the other parents pampering Coraline when they first meet, the other
mother eventually kidnaps her real parents in an attempt for Coraline to join her. The other parents make Coraline realize how much she misses her parents, and even sleeps in their bed that
night, with two pillows she dresses up to make look like her parents. This not only gives her gratitude for them but it also teaches her that in order to truly get what you want in life, you have to
be confident enough to get it yourself and cant assume someone will give you whatever you
want. Because of this epiphany, she does retrieve her parents and even defeats the other mother
and by the end of the film, earns her parents love by treating them with the respect they deserve.
In return, her parents tuck her into bed that night, the father plays dolls with her before bedtime,
and the mother finally gives her the colored gloves just like she wanted.
While some have acknowledged that the film slightly conventionalizes the narrative and
reduces some of its subtleties, the majority do not believe that these alterations limit the film in

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any way but rather that Selicks meticulous direction ultimately expands Gaimans vision, taking
it to new, unparalleled heights (Myers, 2). While both the book by Neil Gaiman and the film
adaptation by Henry Selick are works of art in their separate fields, Coralines maturation from
girl to a young woman is much more conveying in the film. From the similar shadow possessed
by both Coraline and her mother to her intelligent exploration skills, these are what helps her
gain confidence and also learn the greatest lesson of all; gratitude.

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Works Cited

Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. New York: Harper Collins, 2012. Print.

Jung, Carl. Volume 9.2: AION: Researchers into the Phenomenology of the Self. Volume 9.2:
16 Oct. 2012. Print. 20 Oct. 2015
Lindsay Myers. "Whose Fear Is It Anyway?: Moral Panics and Stranger Danger in Henry
Selicks Coraline." The Lion and the Unicorn 36.3 (2012): 245-257. Project MUSE. Web. 29
Oct. 2015. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
Perdigao, Lisa K. "'Transform, and Twist, and Change': Deconstructing Coraline." The Gothic
Fairy Tale in Young Adult Literature: Essays on Stories from Grimm to Gaiman. Ed. Joseph Abbruscato and Tanya Jones. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. 102-122. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
Coraline. Henry Selick. Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, John Hodgeman,
David Keith. Focus Features, 2009. Film.
Wehler, Melissa. "'Be Wise. Be Brave. Be Tricky': Neil Gaimans Extraordinarily Ordinary Coraline." A Quest of Her Own: Essays on the Female Hero in Modern Fantasy. Ed. Lori M. Campbell. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. 111-129. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 23 Oct.
2015.