Blog entry 3.5: Essay

CORALINE

    As I kept reading this fascinating book about Coraline, I realized how great of a story it was so i decided to read it twice to understand it better and identify the types of archetypes I could find through the Coraline character. In my opinion, Coraline was all types of archetypes such as an Orphan for two days when her parents went missing, a Wanderer since she was an explorer, a Warrior for fighting for what she loved, an Altruist for caring and sacrificing herself for her parents and other children, an Innocent because she was just a little girl unaware of dangers in her new house, and Magician because she believed in other world. However, the archetypes that i will focus on will be the Altruist and Innocent since they are both my primary archetypes.
     An  Altruist person is the one who is always willing to do or sacrifice anything for others. It doesn’t matter if we get back what we give or not, we just do it and that’s it. Being altruist is good because people or animals always need help, they always feel good that they have some one to protect them and support them. Being an Altruist means having sympathy for others. However, giving or caring too much for others can be exhausted and a heavy load to carry. We can get the feeling of needing more and thus it can hurt when others don’t see how much we do for them or instead of rewarding us, they do the opposite of what altruist people do. They become selfish, take advantage of our kindness, or simply take it the wrong way instead of being thankful. My other primary archetype is Innocent. Some people say that being an innocent is a blessing because we are away from sins, crimes and guilt. But, being innocent does not last forever since all humans one day have to grow up. During the process of growing up, we have to go through a lot of painful experiences in order to mature. Our innocence is part of our lack of experience in life. When we are innocent, we only care about living and being happy. Innocence has to do a lot with the environment in which we are raised. Some people as myself, were raised in a farm where we grew up more in touch with ourselves and nature. Being innocent is good but it has its negative sides too. We can get fooled by others easily, we can risk our lives for stepping into something that is not familiar to us, we lack the knowledge to prevent ourselves from situations that can be harmful to us. As a result, these experiences could lead us to pain, soul and mentality poisoning, and destruction of innocence or even death.
     When I read the Coraline book, I was able to identify my two main archetypes through her character. Coraline Jones was a young girl which means she was an innocent person who just wanted to play with her toys and explore the world. When she and her parents moved into their new house, she started becoming bored since her parents were on the computer all the time and did not have time to play with her. One day her father told her to explore the house and count the windows, doors, and blue things. When Coraline found a locked door, she asked her Mom to open it for her. The door only opened to a brick wall but I believe it only opened to innocent people and since her mom was with her, the door was blocked with bricks. Next day, Coraline opened the door and discover a dark hall. On the other side, Coraline discover her other parents but with buttons eyes. They gave her everything she did not have with her real parents. Coraline went back and forth comparing the two worlds until one night her real parents went missing. To me, this is the end of Coraline innocence because now she was lonely and needed to do something on her own to get her parents back. This is the time when Coraline discovered her dark side which is having everything she wants. One night, the black cat who was Coraline's only companion went along her side. When Coraline look through the mirror and saw her parents inside asking for her help she realized her other mother had them. This is the time when i was able to identify my archetype as altruist through her because even though Coraline was aware of the dangers around her, she still went back to her other mother’s world to get her real parents back. She loved them and cared for them too much that she made a deal with her other mother. The deal was about playing an exploration game where if Coraline found her parents and the other children’s souls that were taken away and hidden by the other mother, She would be able to go home and take them with her, but if she failed she would stay and let her other mother love her. So Coraline went through some serious obstacles such as finding the three children's souls that were hidden inside marvels inside her toys box, inside the body of a monstrous replica of her neighbors from the first floor, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, Coraline went through a trap set by her other mother who wanted to keep Coraline in darkness forever with her other father who was transformed into a caterpillar with stick-like legs. I think all these obstacles were all the steps for Coraline to mature. Coraline also went to the upstairs flat where her other neighbor lived. There, the rats challenged her with the other marvel that carried the soul of the last child. On her attempt to get the last soul, Coraline fell and hurt herself but as we say in spanish "de la espina y el dolor, nace la flor" (from the pain and the thorns emerges the flower). She thought she lost the rat along with the marvel but the cat killed the rat, giving Coraline the last soul and more hopes to save her parents. She already knew they were inside a snow globe but she pretended not to know where they were. She told her other mother that they were behind a door. When her other mother turned to open the door, Coraline took the snow globe, threw the cat at her other mother’s head, and run to the door. She and the cat escaped but her other mother's right hand escaped too.  Coraline still needed to get rid of her other mother’s right hand that was looking for the black key to open the door again. So, Coraline, not an innocent girl anymore but experienced, decided to play a trick. She took an old cloth from her Mom, her dolls, and her dolls’ tea cups. She went to a well that went half a mile down and laid the cloth on top of the well. She put the cups around the edges of the cloth and weigh them down with water. She carefully put the black key on top of the cloth. When her other mother’s hand found the chance to take the black key, it ran and jump on top of the cloth, grab the black key, and fell all the way down into the well. Coraline went back to her parents and realized how much she loved them.
    As we can see, Coraline was a innocent girl to her new house, to her other house and even to her other dark side. But as she went through all her experiences she learned to love more, to be more careful, and to value what she had. In addition, knowing my archetypes as an Innocent and Altruist person that I am, I was able to understand that Coraline would never give up the people and the world she loved. She always knew that her parents were more important than the materialistic things she could have. I believe that Coraline became more altruist when her innocence was taking away by her other mother. She realized how great her parents were and since that moment on, she did every thing she could to protect and rescue them in order to be with them and love them. All she cared about was her parents, the children and even the cat because that’s what an altruist person does; protect, care, and save others at any cost.