Alice and Coraline

Austin Way English I Mr. Keiter February 28, 2013 Alice and Coraline Comparison The book Alice in Wonderland was written by Lewis Carroll. Coraline was written by Neil Gaiman. Each book was later turned into films to help better get a picture of the adventurous lands the girls traveled through. In the movies Alice in Wonderland and Coraline there are many similarities but also many differences. Though having many differences and similarities each film taught a lesson to the audience by showing the interesting journey of each girl and their adventures along the way.

There are many similarities between the movies. In both stories the viewpoint figure meets a talking cat. The girls were around the same age during their adventures. They both went forward into a different reality due to their curiosity. When they arrived to this unknown place it was cool and interesting to them. They both went through a hole to get to this "opposite/wonderland". They each started out pretty much unhappy with the way their life was. They both returned with a new sense of life.

Both were in danger by a female dominate figure (Queen of hearts/Other Mother). Alice was uncertain about all that was happening around her. Coraline adored the change at first. Alice was set up more colorful and strangely cheery. Coraline was gothic looking and dark. Coraline had to help the souls of other girls who had fallen to the Other Mother, Alice didn’t. Alice grew and shrunk throughout the book/film, while Coraline stayed the same. In Alice in Wonderland Alice follows a talking white rabbit down a hole.

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In this hole is where her journey begins. Alice must kill Jabheiwoki to return to her normal life. Sadly when Alice returns home her family is the same. Though upset things haven’t changed Alice is now strong enough to stand up to her fiance that she doesn’t want to get married to. “Alice” is mostly a book without a plot telling of Alice's dream experiences which don’t particularly make sense but are not supposed to make sense. It is a dream tale. Alice herself is the viewpoint character and as such is very “normal”.

Alice seems no different in “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There”. Coraline is also the viewpoint character and very normal, but the events that happen to her, within the story, are supposed to be “real”, not a dream. In Coraline she also enters another world because her family doesn’t pay attention to her. She must trick and kill the other mother to return to her real life and get out of this button fancy. Coraline also saves her real family in the fancy land. When they return to real life the family is much closer and has a stronger relationship. Coraline” has a plot in which a mysterious spidery woman is attempting to persuade Coraline into remaining in this other world forever. No such temptation is ever laid before Alice. In Coraline others have previously been taken captive by the ruler of the world in which Coraline finds herself which is a plot element the like of which does not exist in “Alice”. Coraline must rescue them. “Alice” has some characters appear more than once, for example, the Duchess, the Cheshire Cat, and the Hatter but nothing that corresponds to a main plot. Coraline gets out of the clutches of the spidery woman by being clever.

Alice gets out of her dream by just waking up. Coraline must crawl back through the hole after killing the other mother. Alice does not change in the story, or at least we are not shown enough of what she was like before the dream or after to see what kind of change in her personality may have occurred. Coraline changes and becomes happy for what she had but is also grateful that this whole experience brought her and her family closer. This was a big difference in the movies because this showed the message the author was trying to send to the audience.

If the Queen of Hearts is compared to the spidery woman, it will be observed that they are quite different. The Queen of Hearts seems to be brutal but the reader is told that the many beheadings she orders never actually occur and that we are shown that the King pardons the poor gardeners. The Queen, like most characters in the story are mad, but she is being coddled and protected in her madness. The spider woman, on the contrary, is a force to be reckoned with and has real power. Later both girls realized it was just a front and the places become scary.

Each girl then finds themselves fighting to get back home to their normal lives. The adventures, though scary, changed the lives of the young girls. They both became stronger in who they were. Although the girls weren’t very happy with their real life before their journeys, they were still happy to be home. They both learned something or became a stronger individual. Though they were scared during their journey, something good comes from everything bad. The girls learned to appreciate what they had and to be careful what they wish for.

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