Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.
Introduction
The Graveyard Book is a childrens fantasy book written by the English author Neil Gaiman. The book was published in America and Britain in 2008. The setting is mostly in the graveyard since it is the location where Nobody Owens was adopted and raised by the residents after his entire household was murdered. Gaimans book has been recognized throughout the world, and he has won the American Newberry award and the British Carnegie Medal, which recognize the best childrens book. Additionally, the book won the yearly Hugo Award for the finest and most unique World Sci-fi Convention. Neil Gaiman won the Locus Award for Finest Young person Reserve, nominated and chosen by the customers of Locus publication. Neil Gaiman employs various devices to help his readers get comfortable with the fantastic elements and create a connection between the real world and the fantasy world.
The popularity of fantasy in the past years has caused many writers of adolescent books to shift their attention to showing the bizarre and macabre. Writers of fantasy books aim to portray that something is magical, whimsical, strange, and unless, but these books have consistency and internal logic (Becher 92). Many of these books contain ideas such as identity, reality, truth, and love, which are continuously contested and destabilized. Neil Gaiman illustrates the idea of the problem of personal identity in Nobody Owens. The childs survival highly depends on the mercy of the ghosts present in the graveyard, which becomes his escape and protection from Jack, the man who killed his parents (Becher 92). Gaiman uses various devices to encourage his readers to get comfortable in the fantasy world because he connects it with reality.
Mirror Characters
One device that Gaiman incorporated in the story is using mirror characters. Owen is a young boy who is innocent and scared of Jack, and he hides from him in the graveyard. On the other hand, Gaiman talks about the ghosts in the graveyard (Opreanu 44). Most people are afraid of ghosts because they are associated with negative things. Therefore, this creates a mirror image of the two characters in the fantasy novel. He uses this mirror aspect to show that ghosts can change their character and protect an innocent child from harm (Opreanu 45). Therefore, this aspect of ghosts becomes an essential part of Gaimans storytelling. He evokes an emotional intensity when narrating the story and applies rhetorical emphasis to give the narration of the ghosts.
This device of mirror characters becomes uncertain at the beginning of the narration because no one would expect a ghost and a child to live together. He offers the narration well, connecting the two different characters to create the ghost child motif, and this makes the readers wish that this was, indeed, a reality (Opreanu 50). Gaiman narrates the dark stories about the ghosts joyfully, reinventing the horror fantasies for the children. He depicts Owens character as a child who had great fear, and he intertwines the story to show how the scary ghosts helped combat his fear (Opreanu 41). Owens character can be available in real life, and this is how Gaiman connects the fantasy world to the real world. Any child reading the story can picture themselves being afraid like Owen and running to the graveyard, where the ghosts dwell.
Static and Dynamic Characters
The second device that Gaiman uses to help readers grow comfortable in the fantasy world is static and dynamic characters. Including various characters in a narration helps bring depth and flavor to a narration. The characters in The Graveyard Book by Gaiman are Nobody Owen, his parents, and the ghosts in the graveyard (Gaiman and Chris 49). Owen and his parents are part of the real world, and the ghosts belong to the fantasy world. These two different types of characters connect the fantasy world to the real world and help the readers become comfortable interacting with the fantasy world (Halsall 125). Gaiman dwells greatly on Owens past and general life, from how his parents were murdered when he was a toddler to how ghosts raised him. Owen is a dynamic character because he is a major character, and the entire novel revolves around him as he builds a friendship with the ghosts.
This part of the story shows how the storys villains develop remorse and help the little boy survive. The readers do not become attached to Owens parents because they serve the role of static characters (Giovanelli 190). However, they develop a connection with Owen and the ghosts. By nature, the readers will sympathize with Owen because of his sad story of being an orphan at 18 months (Gaiman and Chris 50). The ghosts are dynamic characters because they are kind to Owen, and they raise him, giving him all the love. Everybody would expect that the ghosts would be ruthless to the child because that is their nature.
On the contrary, Gaiman depicts the villain as the storys hero because the ghosts do not harm the child. Instead, they raise him well, showing him kindness and love. This character change helps the readers grow a connection with the ghost character, changing their perception of the ghosts and making them comfortable in the fantasy world (Halsall 140). The readers grow a connection with the dynamic characters on an emotional level. The two dynamic characters are both from the real and fantasy worlds. Gaiman connects the two characters well, creating a connection between the fantasy world and the real world. Readers get to experience both worlds through the characters.
Symbolism
Thirdly, Gaiman incorporates the symbolism device in his narration, which helps create a connection between the real world and the fantasy world. The graveyard represents personal, emotional, and societal aspects that the readers can relate to. There is a high likelihood that the children reading the fantasy novel will see the graveyard and relate it to the real world (Opreanu 49). All the children have ever seen a graveyard, either in the real world or in the movies. Therefore, this is a symbol that they will understand well and create an image in their mind while reading the novel (Giovanelli 189). The graveyard carries a lot of meaning to each of the children because some have never been to one. Symbolism is a significant device in fantasy because it helps in reminding the characters of something or someone in their lives.
In The Graveyard Book, the graveyard represents a frightening place, full of dead people and full of roaming ghosts of the dead people. Everyone reading the novel can relate to this idea of a graveyard because they are available in real life. However, this symbol might be frightening to the reader, making them uncomfortable to continue reading the narration (Giovanelli 191). Gaiman recognizes this part, so he incorporates the idea of kind and loving ghosts in the graveyard. The readers get comfortable in the fantasy world, which even changes their perception of the graveyards. The graveyard in the novel connects the readers to the real world, and it helps them overcome the fears that they might have about graveyards.
Repetition of Ideas
When an author keeps repeating a certain idea, it helps in grounding the reality and truth in the fantasy novel. Readers will not fail to notice things that repeatedly occur within the narration, and so the author should make such things important. Gaiman keeps repeating the idea of ghosts in his narration, and this becomes an important aspect of the novel (Opreanu 51). The books main aim is to show readers that ghosts can be kind and loving. Therefore, Gaiman repeats the idea of ghosts throughout the novel, which helps to ground his truth (Halsall 131). Additionally, there is a section of readers who do not believe in the existence of ghosts. When Gaiman repeats the idea of ghosts in the entire novel, their perception might change.
This repetition of the idea of ghosts in the novel helps make the readers comfortable in the fantasy world. This comfort comes from Gaiman repeating the idea of the existence of kind and loving ghosts, who saved Owen and raised him as their son (Bacher 95). The readers who began reading the novel with a skeptical note that ghosts are scary change their perception seeing the repeated idea of the existence of kind ghosts. When repeating the idea of ghosts, Gaiman connects it with real-life because the readers see their fellow human being who was saved by the kind ghosts (Gaiman and Chris 51). At first, this idea might seem bizarre, but after the readers read about it severally, they connect to it and start seeing it as part of the real world. Children are impressionable, and when they repeatedly read about the idea of ghosts in the novel, they develop a deep and lasting emotional impact and start visualizing this idea. This aspect helps build the connection between the fantasy world and the real world.
Parallelism of Events
Parallelism of events is when two or more different procedures occur simultaneously in a fantasy novel. Gaimans book, the device of parallelism, allows for the multiple events together (Becher 95). The parallel events in The Graveyard Book happen in real life and the fantasy world. One event happened in the real world, where Jack, an evil human being, killed Owens parents. At the same time, cruel and scary ghosts exist in the graveyard, part of the fantasy world. These two events were happening parallel to each other, but they both depicted evilness. The presence of these two parallel events creates a connection between the real world and the fantasy world.
Another example of a parallel event depicted in the fantasy novel is when Owen learns how to read and write. Young children learn to read and write, which shows a similarity between the two parallel worlds (Opreanu 44). Owen befriends a girl called Scarlet Perkins, who is from the real world, and her parents would bring her to play in the graveyard. Their friendship grew from when Owen was a child until he was a teenager, around fourteen years (Gaiman and Chris 90). Although he was living in the graveyard, Owen lived a life similar to the real world. In the parallel universe, Owen made friends with the ghosts and werewolves.
Owen befriended Miss Lupescu, who was a werewolf and who helped him escape from the Ghouls. Owen strikes a friendship with Elizabeth Hempstock, a ghost whose grave was located in the section of witches, criminals, and suicides (Gaiman and Chris 79). These friendship events are parallel, and they were all happening simultaneously. Gaiman weaves these multiple friendship events, which helps create a connection between the two worlds. Readers get comfortable in the fantasy world because they can see that the ghosts and superficial characters have the capability to form friendships like people in the real world.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Gaiman has used outlandish but sophisticated rhetorical and fantastical elements to assist his readers in connecting between the real and fantasy world. He uses a setting that most people have perceived as frightening and scary for children to explore various serious events and problems in the real world. As highlighted above, Gaiman has employed several devices to encourage the readers to grow comfortable in the fantasy world and in building a connection with the fantasy world. He has incorporated the devices well in his story and broke the existing perceptions about the graveyard and the existence of ghosts.
Works Cited
Becher, Dominik. Neil Gaimans Ghost Children. ALPH (2016): 91-103.
Gaiman, Neil, and Chris Riddell. The Graveyard Book. Print. London: Bloomsbury, 2008.
Giovanelli, Marcello. Construing the child reader: a cognitive stylistic analysis of the opening to Neil Gaimans The Graveyard Book. Childrens Literature in Education 49.2 (2018): 180-195.
Halsall, Alison. Visualizing the Gothic in Neil Gaimans The Graveyard Book and Its Illustrated Adaptations. Dialogs between Media. Berlin: De Gruyter (2021): 123-142.
Opreanu, Lucia. Others, Doubles, Mirrors, Selves: Scavenged Identities and Doppelgänger Spaces in Neil Gaimans Coraline, Neverwhere, and the Graveyard Book Analele Universitcii Ovidius din Constanca. Seria Filologie 29.1 (2018): 40-51.
Order from us for quality, customized work in due time of your choice.