
At first Coraline is entranced by the other mother and other father’s doting treatment of her, but she soon grows creeped out by their strange obsession with her and begins longing for her old parents. The other mother is constantly reminding Coraline of how much she loves her-and constantly trying to touch or even grope Coraline with her thin, restless hands, her long fingers, and her strange, wriggling hair. The two of them are overjoyed to see Coraline and attempt to woo her into staying by cooking her delicious meals, letting her shirk her chores, and spend all her time playing with toys.


In the other mother’s world, which lies through a strange dark hall on the other side of the door, Coraline’s “other” parents are waiting for her. She believes her parents are boring, and she is frustrated with them for imposing rules and regulations upon her. When Coraline defies her mother by stealing the house keys and going into the drawing room in order to enter the mysterious door, she’s motivated by two things: curiosity and rebellion.

WHAT IS THE FILM CORALINE THEME FREE
Coraline’s contentious relationship with her parents shows that she feels if she could be free of them, she’d be happier-a notion that will soon be questioned as a strange turn of events takes place.
WHAT IS THE FILM CORALINE THEME FULL
Coraline is so detached from them that after they first disappear, she doesn’t quite seem to mind until they’ve been gone for a full day. Because of this, and because Gaiman’s narrative follows Coraline’s perspective, Coraline’s parents aren’t really developed as people early on in the novel. In Coraline’s view, her parents are uninteresting and exist only to move her around the country dictate what she eats and what she wears and impose rules, regulations, and chores upon her life. Her parents are barely a part of the narrative-Coraline knows that their jobs involve “doing things on computers,” but doesn’t seem to take their work or responsibilities seriously and pesters them constantly when she grows bored of exploring or is kept inside by the weather. The early pages of the novel follow Coraline closely as she explores her and her parents’ new flat (which is part of a large mansion that has been converted into four individual units) and the grounds surrounding it. Over the course of the novel, though, she comes to realize that just as parents have an obligation to keep their children safe and healthy, children have certain obligations to their parents, as well. Ultimately, Neil Gaiman argues that sometimes, children must be the ones to help or even save their parents the love and responsibility between parents and children must, he suggests, be a two-way street.Īt the start of the novel, Coraline believes that her mother and father exist to provide for her, entertain her, and, in effect, worship her. Coraline suddenly finds herself tasked with being the one to save her family and hold them together. Coraline’s other parents are also, however, evil entities with black buttons for eyes who “kidnap” her real parents and hold them hostage.

When Coraline Jones finds herself frustrated with her parents and yearning for their attention, she is, at the height of her unhappiness, presented with a world in which a set of “other” parents has been waiting to lavish her with attention, cook her all her favorite foods, and cater to her every whim.
