Chapter 5:

Coraline's parents are not home when she gets back, so she decides to go to sleep, in hopes to see them in the morning. But, the next morning she still can not find them. She goes to Miss Forcible and Miss Spinks flat and asks them if they know where her parents are. They do not help much - they just laugh at her and say she is just a silly little girl. She keeps her mind off of her parents by taking a bath, shopping, and writing stories. She tries to sleep, but at 3am she begins to cry. The black cat shows up to comfort her. Coraline asks it if it knows where her parents are, and it leads her to a mirror. To her surprise, she sees her parents in it, and her dad writes "help us" on the mirror. She calls the police, but they are no help, so she gathers some stuff and heads to the door, because she believes her other mother is behind this. She tells the cat a story. She tells the cat about one time her and her dad were playing outside, and they disturbed a wasps nest. He stayed behind so Coraline could get away with few stings. The next day, he went back to get his glasses that were still under the wasps nest. He told Coraline that he was not scared when she was running away, because he was only helping his daughter. He does not believe that was bravery. But when he went back under the nest, he knew the wasps were there, so he was scared. That was bravery. Coraline tells the cat that she is going to save her parents and be brave like her dad was. When she arrives into the other world, she asks for her parents back, but the other mother says they probably got tired of her and left her. The other mother decides to prove herself, since Coraline believes she is a liar. She shows Coraline a scene in the mirror where her parents are returning from vacation and are talking about how nice it is not to have Coraline around. Coraline yells at the other mother, telling her she knows it is fake. Her other mother starts to get angry and sends a rat to get the black key to the door that leads to the other world. She locks it and tells Coraline to go to bed. The black cat comes up to Coraline in the hallway and tells her that she needs to challenge the other mother. He thinks she should play some sort of game to get her parents back. She goes to sleep, planning for the next day.

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Analysis:

Coraline’s first feeling of fear for her real family comes when she realizes they are not home. At first, she tries to distract herself, but by morning she knows that they may not come back. When she begins to cry, the readers really begin to understand the pain that this little girl is feeling. Her fear only gets worse with time. Coraline tries so hard to figure out what happened to her parents, but all of her attempts at finding clues have been turned down. Her neighbors think she is a silly girl and the cops believe she is naive. Coraline’s wish to have other parents is suddenly coming true, and she regrets it faster than anything. Maybe she did not want her real parents to actually disappear, so what is she going to do? She gathers some essential tools along with her new cat, and heads out, back into danger, to save her substandard parents. The story Coraline tells the cat about her dad is significant because Coraline is following in his steps. Through her story, she claims that she was not brave when she first went in, because she did not know of the danger in front of her. But now she is going in, fully aware of what is to come, and she is doing it anyways. Even though Coraline sometimes takes her parents for granted, she knows that “they would do the same for [her]”. (Gaiman 57) She conveys bravery to her other mother for the first time by confronting her and asking her where her real parents are. The other mother turns her down, but Coraline knows at this point that she is a liar. When the other mother does not get her way, Coraline is sent to her room with her cat, who has luckily picked up on some of the other mothers traits. The other mother likes to play games because she is manipulative, but Coraline agrees nevertheless, trying anything to win her family back.