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Moreno Julio
Professor Lewis
English 115
October 30, 2015
Coraline's Uncanny
One of the most strangest books I have read, Coraline by Neil Gaiman at the beginning
had a very gray and dull story in which I thought it was going to be a boring book but had
something special inside. As you dig deep into the text of the book it reveals something else, the
uncanny mind of coraline. The extraordinary adventures of Coraline in the book is the extreme
imagination of the girl, in simple words this other world on the other side of the brick wall is just
in her brain. In the book we see that she is in this big house and no friends except the old
neighbors and her parents do not dedicate enough time to her, so she basically lives in one
boring lifestyle. She is a girl with a adventures mind. So this leads to the creation of this other
"perfect" world behind the brick wall. It Is her pure imagination that leads her into this
dreamland that becomes a nightmare. Coraline's character is a adventurers child, she is very
playful and full of imagination, her identity is reflected by the world she sets up. The uncanny
side of Coraline is what creates this world in her head. In the end Coraline impulsed by the fear
of her own imagination grew as a kid to a young adult.
The texts show how this new world that is presented to us in the book is completely fake
and is just a crazy dream by coraline, in the first part in the book, when we get to see "other
mother" for the first time she is presented in a weird appearance she does not look human at all
she is taller, skinnier, and whiter. What throws everything of is her button eyes(25-26 Gaiman).

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In the book coraline seems brave to not get spooked, she remains calm throughout this whole
weird situation. Any other little kid in that situation would get entirely scared and run away.
Another instance in chapter five in the book " Good afternoon" said the cat"(33). This keeps on
showing the total made up dreamland that coraline has set up. This made up world by coraline is
her expressing all the boredom lived in her real life, where her parents do not pay attention to her
and her life is very dull and simple. In the book in chapter one we see that she loves exploring
and her parents do not let her go out to much because of the rain "But go out she did, exploring,
every day until the day it rained, when coraline had to stay inside"(4). She got extremely bored
and when she was on the other side of the brick wall on her fake life which at first seemed like a
wonderful dreamland because like in chapter three it says " Have a nice time outside, said her
other mother."(31). They were like the perfect parents, they were full of joy and enthusiasm. Also
in her real life Her parents would cook horribly and if they didnt cook it, it would usually be
frozen coraline mentions that in chapter three "It was the best chicken that coraline had ever
eaten. Her mother sometimes made chicken, but it was always out of packets or frozen, and was
very dry, and it never tasted of anything"(27). The text keeps on painting this new world as it was
what coraline always wanted but then the weird things come into play, the uncanny mind of
coraline becomes apparent. Her dreamland becomes something darker, something that she did
not expect, a nightmare.
Uncanny minds can be very weird and very unorthodox.In library terms uncanny means
something out of the ordinary or to have supernatural basis;arousing superstitious fear or dread.
it is basically something that gives of a uncomfortable vibe. In "Something very old and very
slow" by Richard Gooding it states that the uncanny in coraline refer to lots of studies done by
Sigmund Freud a Austrian neurologist and for most the father of psychoanalysis. That unaccany

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included dj vu, doubles, the loss of distinction between real and imaginary, and the granting of
wishes. All that mentioned above by Freud is in the book. The doubles is self explanatory having
two moms and dads is part of the uncanny mind. The hard distinction between what is real and
what is fake is also in the text or in this case I will use the movie. When coraline beats "other
mother" and leaves the other world; she comes back full of joy and relief that her parents are
back safe and sound. She firmly believes she has saved them from "other mother" but in reality
they do not have clue what has just transpired. While they were gone or maybe like I have argued
all this is just in coraline's mind and it was just a dream, a very bad dream. Nobody but coraline
knows about this other dreamland and for example using Lucy from Narnia(Lewis). She also
found this wardrobe that took her to another world. Her siblings thought she was just making the
story up just to have fun. In that Narnia movie it resulted to be true and the rest of the kids went
through the magic wardrobe, in coraline's case nobody but her knows about this other world it is
just based on her imagination. For the last two ideas based in Freud's report, we have dig a bit
deeper in the book with the dj vu and the granting of wishes. This made up dreamland of
coralines is a wonderful place to live in, better than her real life where is boring and dull. So if
this is supposed to be a good dream why does it become a nightmare for coraline? some people
may argue why did it become a battle to save her soul. She had everything set up for this world
to be an escape route of all the boring daily stuff, In this world she can explore and have a happy
family but one of the reasons it becomes a bad dream is the dj vu aspect of the uncanny mind
of the brain. in the book we see two instances before she goes into the other world. One of them
comes when both Miss Spink and Miss Forcible have a small talk with coraline and see her in
terrible danger(18). For coraline, she did not really take both old ladies seriously, but her
uncanny mind stuck with it and during her wonderful dream deep down she welcomed that

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danger and her dreamland became a terror land. somewhere inside of her wanted this danger near
her as it says in the book "In the midst, it was a ghost-world. In danger? thought coraline to
herself. it sounded exiting. it didnt sound like a bad thing. Not really"(19). The second instance
is when The old neighbor told coraline she had a message for her "The old man leaned down, so
close that the bottom of his mustache tickled coraline's ear."the mice have a message for you." he
whispered. coraline didnt know what to say. " the message is this. Dont go through the door."
(14). Her unconscious mind caught the danger but not coraline herself and when she went
through the door to get to the other world, her uncanny knew that there was something there that
was not good for her but she went through anyway because she is in search of that danger. So in
the end was her dream a good dream or a nightmare? Was she in control?
It was a dream set up by Coraline herself. The only problem is that her uncanny side of
her came into play and her dreamland came out to be a bit weirder even scary. The Dose of fear
in the book gave her a stronger identity. Coraline herself was a brave girl but still was a child. In
" Psychoanalysis, Gothic Childrens Literature, and the Canonization of Coraline" by Chloe
Germaine Buckley It states that literature like the one in Coraline emphasizes how the fear factor
grows in the character helps be more independent. It surges with the physic integration that this
helps the young minds to become a responsible selfhood. In Coraline she tries to have fun with
her new life but like I said before she was really bored. She is still a kid and it is understandable
to look for fun but she is going to have to grow up. At the beginning of chapter twelve " Her
mother shook her gently awake"(137). It was all a dream but a worthwhile dream because her
weird uncanny mind helped her to move on of her child age to a more mature coraline as we see
in the text in chapter thirteen "Normally, on the night before the first day of term, Coraline was
apprehensive and nervous. But, she realized, there was nothing left about school that could scare

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her anymore"(159). A moment in her life could be this nightmare which she just lived through
which made her not scared anymore, more independent. Her uncanny mind also revealed
something else about her and that was her longing for attention.
She longed for her parents attention in chapter twelve "He put the computer to sleep,
stood up, and then, for no reason at all, picked coraline up, which he had not done for such a long
time, not since he had started pointing out to her she was much too old to be carried, and he
carried her into the kitchen"(138-139). She had really longed for that type of love to be shown to
her. At this point she had gotten over that childness attitude. Her fear of losing their love has to
be represented in the dream as when "other mother" took her parents and trapped them in the
snow globe. She was desperate enough to save them and go back into the tunnel and play
through the games with "other mother" to save them. In this hellish dream she longed for her
parents to be with her and was scared to lose them. In real life though to lose their love. Her
uncanny mind was afraid to not be that loved children but in the end became a self reliant.
Some people may argue that this was a reality and that it was not a dream. In chapter
thirteen though it starts with "Coraline's parents never seemed to remember anything about their
time in the snow globe"(147). How can they remember if it never happened. Adults would bring
weird out like that and talked about it. But no because this was all a dream. Other evidence can
be how the cat can talk in the other world and when he comes back he acts like a normal cat
would."The cat looked up at her, then rested its head on her hand, licking her fingers with its
sandpapery tongue. It began to purr"(134). While in her dream the cat would talk with her and
even give advice to her. That was it then a dream which may indeed have changed her young life.
Coraline's nightmare as the should been called because that what it basically was.???
Coraline at the beginning of the story was adventures girl. She was a girl that was not afraid of

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anything or so it seemed. Unconsciously she had many inner fears expressed in this horrible
dream. The fear of losing her parents love, the fear of being alone and bored. She had inner
demons which she had finally expelled from her. In the end when she still believes all this was
still reality he leads " other mothers" hand into the well(Gaiman 157). More importantly than the
hand falling into the well it was the key which is the symbol of her growing up. The other world
which may be a fun zone to many kids like all the food, toys, and attention she got from her other
parents. For her though by letting the key go down to she is letting go of the little kid that she is
and almost secured that the brick wall will never be open. That stage of her life has left. The
Uncanny mind of coraline has helped her move on to be a full fledged young adult.

Works Cited
Buckley Germaine, Chlo. "Psychoanalysis, Gothic Childrens Literature, and the
Canonization of Coraline." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 40.1 (2015):
58-79. Project MUSE. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
Coraline. Dir. Henry Selick. Perf. Dakota Fanning. Focus Features, 2009. Film.
Gaiman, Neil. Coraline. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.

Gooding Richard.""Something Very Old and Very Slow": Coraline Uncanniness, and Narrative
Form." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 33.4 (2008): 390-407. Project MUSE. Web.
27 Oct. 2015.

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