Hi everyone, Coraline is actually a movie I’ve seen recently and it was really good, so off the bat I just wanted you guys to know that is was a good experience. But right now I do not want to talk about the film in detail, instead, I would like to focus on one single aspect of the story.
‘Coraline’, is a story about a little girl, who is bored and frustrated with her life and parents. While exploring her new house she comes across a tunnel like portal that leads her down to a parallel realm, where everything is as perfect as a button.
Coraline, comes to meet her ‘Other Mother’, who showers her with all her love, and indulges her fantasies. All of which seems fine, because from jump the parallel place is visually more inviting and warmer with the use of colors and a general warmness and action that the real world lacks. Coraline is of course enchanted by this place and goes there often, but from the very beginning she is struck by the sight of the mother with the button eyes.
What I took from ‘Coraline’, is how children are very easy to manipulate and seduce, which is not a new discovery but it might be to young children, because generally kids see love and attention as a sign of love, and not a means of someone getting what they want, no matter how sinister. The strange thing is that, as a society we uphold politeness and good deeds as actions that show finer intentions, we also are trained from a young age to react nice when someone is being nice to us, but more importantly, children and people in general are not taught to see kindness, affection or favors as something to be suspicious of.
That training comes in early, and children learn just as fast they are scolded, children are molded into behaviors by the taunts of their parents and guardians – and that early case of strict love is what leaves many people tainted and psychologically and emotionally in need of a buffer thirst for love and tenderness. Oddly enough when a parent or close relative is seen hurting or being slightly abusive towards a younger person it is not seen as something wrong r damaging, it is instead seen as giving the child discipline, or preparing them for the difficulties of the real and external world. This kind of training is often a mystery and inclination of confusion for children, but for adults that time is witnessed or recalled as something that made them stronger. But people often say that about anything that was difficult, as a means of getting over it.
Therefore, if abuse from people who genuinely love you is nothing to be afraid of, then how should one face or acknowledge love or softness from strangers? Is it something should be welcomed or is it something to be shunned just because it comes from a distant place, that may be dangerous. Men and women in seduction often put their best foot forward and use certain buzzwords to entice the person that they are trying to win over. Let take an example of a man opening a door for a woman, initially when a man opened a door for a lady it was seen as a polite gesture, it was a show of being aware or conscious of the needs of other around him, like basic human decency. Strangely enough with the advent of the feminist movement, women urged themselves to not appear weak or be docile and take personal responsibility, symbolically and physically opening the door themselves and walking through when a man opens it for them. In most recent times, the opening door debate it still seen as simple two-way thing – essentially as men only want to open the door in order to a polite gentleman, and women only want to refuse to cross that door in order to be empowered. The verbal exchange of opinions even never comes across a different reason for both sides of the story, apart from some people arguing over being traditionalist or modern. I, however once came across a book that talked about a hidden intention behind men opening the door for a woman. Quite simply, when a man opens a door for a lady to walk into before him, it allows him to look freely at her backside, the same goes for when he pulls back a chair of her, it allows his eyes to see her bust.
So behind the facade of being polite, what was actually being met was the desire of the predator at the price of the ignorance of the recipient.
It is a paradoxical irony that honest love is often something that inflicts abuse and hurt, and a more destructive intention may use sweet words and kindness to meet its means, but if so then how is the recipient supposed to decode any of this. Should the recipient take on the harshness as a sign of love, or should they oppose love as a sign of misconduct? Perhaps this is something that should be attested to a gut instinct. But it would be foolish to asses that any pain endured is not felt in a way that is detrimental, and it is also foolish to asses that any kind of kindness is not attractive.
The mother in Coraline is initially mean and annoyed by her daughter’s neediness, not at the level of abuse but perhaps neglect. Coraline often tries to get her attention or tries to get her mother interested in her activities, but her mother is focused on working, but even so compared to the father there is no tenderness in her exchanges with Coraline, and with the way Coraline is never hazed by that shows that this behavior is very common. So despite the mother’s obvious indifference Coraline sees it as normal and it not deflected by it, this is contrast with how the ‘other mother’ talks to and treats the child, she indulges and caters to the wants of the child, but Coraline is already taken aback by her eyes. It is like a hunch or something disturbing that keeps reminding her that something is terribly wrong, and she mentions the eyes as the reason why this is not her mother.
Coraline in her innocent wisdom is still pushed away from her mother, and is pulled in by the ‘other mother’. She does feel the unease of the atmosphere in the perfect world down the portal, but she does make a decision to leave her real parents for good, and when given the price for all the love in the other world, she insists on going back to her real mother.
It is significant that the conflict Coraline faces in both worlds is associated with the mother, which is a relationship that is supposed to be everyone’s primary care-giver, thus in both places Coraline is a victim or mixed signals and disrupted gratifications, leaving her open for abuse in both places. The conflict with the mother is somewhat mirrored by fact that Wybe who is otherwise nice to her gives her the doll that is the catalyst to her trouble, while the aggressive cat is what helps her out of the trap.
Coraline is a lucky child, who was able to sense the truth and feel the danger around her, but what about those whose senses are dimmed? Plenty of people fall victim of being blind of intentions, and with reference to several predators they target people who vulnerable and they work on isolating their selected victims. Which is something that other mother takes note of and has her eyes over the child’s life, and she did the same thing with earlier victims, whose eyes she already stole. The robbing of their eyes is symbolic of stealing their perception of reality, thus their independence of thought, and this mixture of love, abuse and submission is what makes the children complete slaves, but on the brighter side these kids know that they are trapped.
A true tragedy would come forward if the children were in the fantasy trap, and were completely unaware of it. Our fantasies and all the fun things in the world are all ways or modes of numbing our senses, and mixed with the mind of ignorance and desperation it becomes very easy for a sadistic villain to come to the rescue. Coraline was very close to that end, but that strong sense of freedom and reality is what saves her in the end, and this awareness and vigilance should in everyone to be safe.
Maheen's Muse 