| dc.description.abstract | In the chapter “Modern Children’s Fantasy” in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature, Catherine Butler explains that children’s fantasy has evolved with the changes of society the past 60 years. With the growing urbanization and technical developments, children have a whole different way of viewing the world today. This has made children’s fantasy favour stories where the protagonists are transported to secondary worlds, completely removed from their normal reality (Mendlesohn & James, 2012). Butler states that influence from realist young adult fiction has made children’s fantasy focus more on the emotional growth of the protagonist. One of the most well-known contemporary fantasy writers for children is Neil Gaiman, who frequently focuses on children’s emotional development by presenting us with protagonists who do not feel at home in their environment or who do not know how they belong in the world. These themes can be found in both Coraline (2009) and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013). In many contemporary children’s fantasy books the life-defining change that the protagonist goes through involves getting supernatural powers (Mendlesohn & James, 2012). Neil Gaiman, on the other hand, writes about protagonists who find the magic inside. The magic that makes them who they are and show them what they are capable of in this world.
Both Coraline and the boy experience a secondary world where something evil is trying to take them over, steal their identity and their sense of self. In the beginning, the protagonists do not really know where or how they belong in the world. It is the horrible experiences that shape them and makes them grow as humans. The houses signify the change they are going through as they are growing up. They must figure out their identity on their own, separate from their parents. The experiences in the houses are terrifying because growing up is terrifying. Nothing makes sense, and no one can tell you what to expect because growing up is different for everyone.
The uncanny element in the stories drives the protagonists to evolve emotionally. It is used to show the changes and challenges the children must go through as they are growing up. They present tool for self-discovery where the protagonists understand what it means to grow up and say goodbye to their childhood. | |