Coralin’s Metamorphosis into the Self-reliant Girl: Reading Neil Gaiman’s Coraline
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Department of English
Abstract
This paper studies Neil Gaiman's children fantasy Coraline based on identity
formation of the title character, Coraline. Neil Gaiman, as an author of juvenile
literature, presents the transformation–from reliant to self-reliant–of the pivotal
character in this novella. Therefore, the researcher attempts to embody the
interconnectedness of the transformation of the novella’s heroine and all the struggles
she has to go through just to establish herself as a bold and independent girl who
does not rely on any man, not even her father.In this regard, this dissertation asserts
that Coraline is on the verge of becoming a new woman who fights with everything, as
a man fights in most of the stories, to save her family. In order to examine the minute
process of the major Character’s transformation and her search for the true self, the
paper borrows the relevant insights from Erik H. Erikson’s theory of ‘psychosocial
development’.As far as the dissertation’s argument is concerned, the researcher
analyzes the text using some of the theoretical insights propounded by Erikson:
Intimacy vs. Isolation, Trust vs. Mistrust, and Identity vs. confusion. As claimed by
Eriks on, that each new stage builds upon the living experiences of the subsequent
stages that are clearly observed in the life of Coraline as she involves in a perilous
circumstances. Based on these three stages of psychological development the
research paper explores the world of Coraline where the protagonist undergoes the
surreal circumstances that insist her to explore the inner self so as to imbibe a
tremendous transformation in her life.
Keywords: transformation, existential crisis, identity, true self, existence