Coraline’s Real World of Deprivation Versus The Fake World of Fulfillment

In the movie Coraline, people in society are living a fast paced life. At times they neglect the little things that are right in front of them, such as the welfare of their children. For this reason Coraline is suffering from the lack of attention and is living a neglectful life. She seeks attention from her parents in order to escape the problems she is faced with each day. Coraline highlights this inner conflict of an imperfect and perfect world and the need to be validated. Coraline uses wishful thinking as a means of coping and separating the rigors of all worlds, such as neglect and deprivation. Coraline is a movie that highlights the anguish of her relationship with her real parents and a parallel world that was created to lure her through a pseudo family dynamic in which she was in control of. Hence, we see a distinct separation between Coraline’s desire for attention, nuclear family and her role of being invincible by conducting her own family setting within this fantasy world. However, when Coraline begins to realize the materialistic nature of these other parents along with the dangers they have illustrated for her; she then breaks her vulnerability and begins plotting against them. In the movie Coraline said, “No way!, you’re not sewing buttons in my eyes……”. She then realizes that something was wrong and that her perfect world was not so perfect after all. One highly utilized escape is through the key that create a place where she can be invincible, to be able to conquer her doubts of being brave about the choices she makes.

Reason being was that choice of staying in the other world or not and the choice of saving her parents along with the other ghost children. Coraline said, “Let’s play an exploring game, A finding things game”. “She will be finding her real parents and the ghost children”. In reality she does not have to save them but she chooses to, especially when she set the ghost children free. Right there she could have just saved her parents and run but she did not. It can, therefore, be seen that Coraline discovers a world in which she gets all the attention she wants and receives the best treatment. “Coraline said, Hey mom! Where does this door go?”.

As depicted in the movie “Coraline”, the scene begins with an introduction of her moving into an old house with her mother and father. Her mother and father seems to lack energy and are portrayed as disregarding to Coraline’s need of attention. When Coraline tries to talk to her parents, they continue to tell her that they were working. Therefore, Coraline becomes a lonely, attention-seeking girl who as a result wanders around the boring and rusty house in search of something to occupy her time. During one scene, Coraline’s real father states, “Oh! You know this house is 150 year old… Explore it”. Consequently, she discovers a world that mirrors her real world, except that those parents were more attentive and things are ideal. These two spaces, the real versus the created, showcase Coraline’s internal conflicts in both worlds where she struggled with the real world of deprivation versus the other world where she was initially entertained and had most of her desires fulfilled without even having to ask.

Based on what is presented in the movie “Coraline”, it is believed that Coraline experiences literal problems; as they were all things of existence she did not like and would want to change in the real world. A picture of how happy Coraline’s family was shown in the movie, while she explored the house. This made her wish for an ideal life just as it was depicted in the photo. Coraline starts out as very content and her way of dressing was also different and possibily a mental reflection of her happiness. However, after moving to the pink house she starts dressing differently and begins wearing yellow rain boots, coat and has her hair dyed the color blue. Coraline uses this way of dress as a means of seeking attention from her parents as she has a feeling of being neglected. This can be seen when Coraline wanted the gloves and her mother would not give her, and she said angrily she will tell her other mother. Coraline said, “My other mother would get them”. The entire concept of the movie is based on the real world that produces deprivation versus the fake world that gives fulfillment. This is seen in the movie where the picture of the little boy was boring in the real world and smiling and eating ice-cream in the other world.

In her space, however, she is living in a real world of deprivation and another world of fulfillment. In Coraline’s case she and her mother has a rocky relationship, and argues all the time. When they argue about not letting Coraline play outside and when she goes to get her uniforms for school. Her mother seems like she is emotionally unavailable and doesn’t dote Caroline with a lot of affection, where,” Coraline said, “I almost fell down a well yesterday, mom, while the other mother created a fake world that replicates Coraline’s world. The two mothers, the real and the fake, are depicted in the movie to physically resemble each other where the neck brace and button eyes distinguish them. In the real world, her mother exhibits disinterest in her and had normal eyes with a neck brace. She is always neglectful and treats Caroline like she is nothing more than a nuisance. In the “doll world”, she gets a lot of attention from this other mother, who treats her like a princess who means the world to her, and has buttons for eyes and transforms into someone else when Coraline refuses to follow her orders. She cooks her favorite food and gets her all that she desires. 

This is why the other mother creates a fake world that she molds to Coraline’s likings, as she gets her anything her heart desires, and plans adventures and leaves her kind notes in order to lure her into her home. This can be seen in the movie, where the other mother leaves a note telling her of the outfit she left for the event. This fake mother is in fact a predator who uses Caroline’s insecurities as a means of luring her into this web of deceit. The treatment that Coraline gets from her real mother is sending the wrong message to her, as she gets Coraline what she needs instead of what she wants. Coraline wishes that she was treated the same way in the real world, as she was treated in the doll world. With the treatment she was receiving she comes to believe that her parents did not actually love her nor want her around. This is why in the movie, when she had a disagreement with her mother in the car she went home in search of the key to the other world.

Coraline’s parent’s actions tends to affect her emotionally, without them even knowing. They would neglect her making her feel unappreciated. In doing this, it causes her to return to the fake world, where she has all the fulfillment of her desires. This is a result of the busy lives her parents are leading on a daily basis. They become detached and engulfed in their jobs. The ghost children are in a similar situation as Coraline, where they are a representation of other children who have parents who treats them badly and brushes them aside, because of their busy lives. This is why these ghost children refer to the other mother in the doll world as their mom, because she is similar to their mother in the real world. The ghost children said, “She gave us all we wanted, yet we still wanted more”.

When Coraline changes her tone of voice, where she yells at the other mother to let her go, she did not handle it quite well as it made her change into someone else, because Coraline refuses to apologize. We notice that the other mother’s demeanor completely changes, causing the gorgeous world around her to turn into a moldy shell of itself. When Coraline refuses to apologize, she throws Caroline into a dungeon. This is showing that, when Coraline calls this figure, the facade crumbles revealing the true essence of how things really are. Her resolve of not giving up and becoming lost like the other children showcases her resoluteness and inner strength. With that being said, Coraline then realizes that her world of fulfillment was nothing but an escape to confinement. It can be seen in the movie that when Coraline and the cat were walking in the park, the scenery changed into a white space that signifies emptiness. The cat said, “Nothing out here, it’s the empty part of this world”. This made Coraline realize that this was a made up world that really could not offer her real fulfillment. She comes to accepts her parents for who they are as she notices the fake world was just empty. This could be the reason why Coraline works so hard in finding and saving the ghost children, because she wants to show her parents how much she appreciates her home life and to show the other mother that she cannot be overcome. In the movie we see that the other Wybie is on Coraline’s side along with her mother and father. However, he is the same person as the original Wybie. The only difference is that he is a quiet person who listens and does not talk. He eventually helps Coraline escape the dungeon. We also noticed that, the Wybe in the other world is made of sand. When new Wybie is introduced to Coraline by the other mother, Wybie goes along with it and does not rebel because he is following orders. Wybie and Coraline both grow close together, and he understands and believes that Coraline is not lying, as she is actually telling the truth all along, even though he is skeptical and in denial at first. This highlights her strength of conviction and not bowing to the facade created to placate others. The movie shows the cat was one of the characters who could travel back and forth from one world to the next, because he was around at the same time as the other mother and both are connected to the fake world. That is why he was able to warn Coraline about her, as he tried to save the ghost children before as he did for Coraline.

The other mother created this world, where she uses dolls that looked like her prey to spy on them, to find out what they liked. She then molds everything to their liking in order to lure them into her fake world. This is manifested in the movie when the ghost children tell Coraline what had happened to them. Coraline is presented with a doll that looks like her. It could be seen that Coraline was ready to conquer the other mother as, she now discover the real truth about her.

The other mother creates her world using magic along with materials from the real world to make it seem convincing. In the movie we see that the cat kills a rat and it turns into sand. The other father, who is shaped like a pumpkin and Wybie would not talk and he also looks deformed. The fake world is at the bottom of the well that the door in Coraline’s house leads to. This is so because the appearance of the portal behind the door is very similar.

The chance of being treated the way Coraline wants to be treated, even for a brief moment causes her to remain in a situation. The amazing treatment that’s so fleeting but so magical, which is also why Coraline chases this treatment that she yearns and later happens to be the one to destroy it, as it wasn’t what she expected. This causes Coraline to return to home and appreciate all that she had, even if she wasn’t happy with it. When her parents returns from being trapped she greets them with compassion. Seeing how happy she is to see them, makes her adapt her role to just being their child, rather than being an attention seeking child.