{"id":39,"date":"2016-03-18T17:53:37","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T21:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/?p=39"},"modified":"2016-03-18T17:54:40","modified_gmt":"2016-03-18T21:54:40","slug":"you-dont-fit-in-and-its-all-your-fault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/engl117s16\/uncategorized\/you-dont-fit-in-and-its-all-your-fault\/","title":{"rendered":"You don’t fit in and its all your fault"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children\u2019s movies seem very simple, so simple that some may be inclined to say that they are devoid of any hidden meaning. The cute aesthetics and simple plots make these movies attractive to children, but that doesn\u2019t mean that there aren\u2019t themes that underlay these movies. Even though kids might not consciously notice these hidden messages, it doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t there. All stories work by presenting a real social conflict, masked to fit into the fictional universe of that story, and then presenting an imaginary solution to that conflict. In order for this to work, that social conflict needs to be applicable to our lives in some way. Films that are able to pull this off keep our attention because they are able to show us a solution to a problem that we deal with in our lives. Coraline <\/em>is an example of this. This cute movie for kids is actually about being ignored and not fitting into the world around you.<\/p>\n

\"CoralineCover\"<\/p>\n

First let me summarize the film to you. Coraline <\/em>is a stop motion film about a young girl who moves to a new home. Coraline is bored in her new home. She looks for some way to entertain herself, but her parents are busy, her neighbors are all dull people who can\u2019t get her name right, and the one kid her age she meets, Wybie, is a creep that she catches watching her. Then she finds a small door in her living room. Beyond it lays a tunnel that leads to a world that looks very similar to her own, but everyone is focused on making her happy. And they all have creepy button eyes, but that\u2019s beside the point.<\/p>\n

\"Yup,

Yup, there’s nothing unsettling about that at all<\/p><\/div>\n

There she finds her other-mother and other-father, who actually pay attention to her. She spends the night there, having fun the entire time, and wakes up back in the regular world. Her mom tells her it was a just a dream and goes back to ignoring Coraline. That night, Coraline goes back to the door and finds the tunnel once again. This time she encounters many magical wonders, such as a garden in the shape of her face and an elaborate circus of trained mice. Then her other mother tells her that in order to stay, she has to sew buttons onto her eyes. Obviously, Coraline isn\u2019t too thrilled about this. She tries to escape and everyone there deforms into ugly versions of themselves.<\/p>\n

\"spider

Should’ve seen this coming from the pretty creepy button eyes<\/p><\/div>\n

Her other-mother is a terrifying spider-like monster that is controlling the whole world to try and keep her there. She eventually escapes, but she realizes her parents have been captured by the other-mother. She goes back into the other world to save her parents and after tricking the other-mother, she saves the day. When she returns to the real world, her parents don\u2019t remember a thing. Coraline, with a new appreciation of her own world, seems happier and gets along with everyone she once despised.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take Coraline<\/em> and first look at its most obvious theme. Coraline is a child who feels ignored. Throughout the beginning of the movie, she tries to make decisions for herself but never gets her way. She wants to spend time with her parents, but she is ignored. She says that she doesn\u2019t like her dad\u2019s cooking, but she\u2019s ignored. She attempts to talk to her neighbors, but again she\u2019s ignored. In fact, they all mistakenly call Coraline Caroline at some point, and when she corrects them, she\u2019s repeatedly ignored. Coraline\u2019s life is just a series of memories of being ignored by different people.\"Ignored<\/p>\n

This is what it\u2019s like to be a child. Children aren\u2019t taken seriously, they can\u2019t make decisions for themselves, and they need to listen to their elders. This can often make it feel to them that the world is ignoring them, that what they say doesn\u2019t matter. Throughout the movie, Coraline is talked over by other characters. When Coraline comes back from the other world the first time, her mom doesn\u2019t even seem to register what Coraline is saying. Coraline feels like she doesn\u2019t belong in her own world and is frustrated by this. This is why Coraline finds the other world so attractive. This is a world where everything is literally about her. Everyone listens to her and respects her decisions, they let her decide what to eat for dinner. They even put on big shows just for her. She wants to stay there forever but in the end, it\u2019s all a sham. They want to take away Coraline\u2019s eyes and imprison her. Whenever Coraline goes into this other world, she is always wearing pajamas. This makes me believe that this other world is a constructed fantasy of Coraline\u2019s. The struggle she undergoes with the other-mother is actually an internal struggle. She created the world she believed she wanted, but then it turned out to be too good to be true. This fantasy dreamland turned into a nightmare. This is Coraline realizing that a world where everything is about her just isn\u2019t feasible. She is maturing. She\u2019s giving up her childish view of the world and learning to appreciate how things actually are. \u00a0In the end, Coraline is seen working towards actually having conversations with her family and neighbors. Kids may feel as if the whole world is ignoring them, but that\u2019s only because they\u2019re looking at it the wrong way and they need to grow up. If you want to be heard by others, you have to make an effort to listen yourself.<\/p>\n

Coraline tries to control people in the beginning of the film. She doesn\u2019t do this on purpose, she simply wants to be entertained. However, being entertained means that her parents must drop whatever they\u2019re doing and spend time with Coraline. She is selfish and doesn\u2019t realize it. She encounters a fantasy where everything is about her, and she almost loses her eyes. Everything in Coraline is a puppet, but the puppets in the regular world are more human-like because they have actual eyes instead of creepy buttons. The eyes have been said to be the windows to the soul because they allow someone to express their emotions. They also show a person\u2019s free will and intentionality; unlike buttons, \u00a0eyes can choose where to look unlike the buttons. Essentially, eyes are what makes someone a person. When Coraline constructs a world where she has everyone at her beck and call, she almost stops being a person. Being so self-absorbed that you believe that everything should be about you takes away your personhood. Our individuality arises from the fact that everyone else around us are different people with different wants and needs. If everyone around you wanted the same things that you wanted, would you still be an individual? This film is showing the dangers of narcissism. Coraline doesn\u2019t realize that her parents have things that they need to do. Coraline\u2019s mother was injured in the move, but Coraline doesn\u2019t seem worried at all, she\u2019s only worried that her mom can\u2019t spend time with her. Coraline learns her lesson. She is seen serving others lemonade, an acknowledgement that the other people in her life also have wants and needs. In order to be happy as a person, you have to come to terms with the fact that you aren\u2019t the most important thing to everyone in your life, they are also individuals with their own agendas. Accepting this will allow you to become a good person and avoid becoming a fake narcissistic doll.<\/p>\n

Hidden inside Coraline<\/em>, we can also see a commentary on the stop-motion industry. Stop motion is an old art form that require a lot of time and energy to get even a few seconds of film. In the Behind the Scenes for Coraline, they state that it took an animator a full work-week to get 90 seconds of film. With the rise of computer generated images, CGI, the stop-motion industry has gained some competition. CGI fills the exact same niche that stop-motion did. Throughout the beginning, Coraline is mistakenly called Caroline, a much more popular version of her name. Stop-motion can be mistaken for CGI, in fact I myself thought Coraline was an animated movie when I first watched it in 2009. It\u2019s just not as popular as CGI so people will assume it is CGI unless shown evidence otherwise, such as a choppy frame rate. At one point, Coraline says \u201cI\u2019m way too old for dolls.\u201d<\/p>\n