Coraline – An Interpretation

I went to see Coraline today with a few friends and, after the movie was done, I couldn’t help but try to see it from different angles of interpretation.

One thing struck me as being a possible interpretation and, while it might not be right, I think it is nevertheless interesting. It seemed a bit as if Coraline was almost a rape victim, or at least, and maybe more likely, was abused. Things that give me leeway for this interpretation are quite a few, one of them is the idea of promises of love and good things in exchange for her virginity, her soul, her childhood – to give up your eyes is to give away your soul (“Eyes are the window to the soul”). In an abusive relation, if the suffering part receives no help it ends up crushed, a empty shell of a person.

A highly manipulative, spiteful and downright venomous woman is, no matter what, part of her life. Oddly enough, I was reminded by the movie “An American Crime” when seeing the ‘other mother’. As time passes, intentions are revealed. And she will stop at nothing. She killed the otherwybie.

Speaking of which, when he removes his glove to show her that he is made of sand, it is kinda like her own mind telling her that “Sorry, he never did exist in here, he is merely a figment of your imagination – he exists in your new life though”.

This is part of her past, wheter she wants or not. She can move away with her new family into a place aptly named as magical and as childhood-esque as possible, such as the Pink Palace. Pink Palace, to me, this reminds of my sister when she was young, with dolls and a bunch of colorful (mostly pink) toys. Wheter we want it or not, pink is a color associated with the female sex, as thus, it seems as if the house was tailored to bring her away from her abusive past.

But the past has a knack for haunting us – and abused children rarely if ever get absolutely over it, it scars forever. And as her past comes back bashing through brick walls and passages that are not there, fears and nightmares come abound and, in twisted little games, with help from new friends and friendly faces, one can finally throw the past into a well so deep that it is impossible to look over. Like the ghosts said… “It is not over yet and will not be as long as you have the key”. The key to unlock the past.

When everything starts to breakdown and disappear in the otherworld, maybe it is a fragmentation of the dreams and desires, what she really wanted – she wanted a magical and warm place, alive and harmless. Tickling flowers, call me crazy, but flowers are essentially the ‘genitalia’ of plants, to let herself be tickled by them is to allow experiences to happen and to be ‘ok’ with it. To have a father that protects her and thus will ‘cap’ pretenders and bring them to dinner – no tickling before that. See how the othermother fed them and they all dined together. Those were maybe possible boyfriends.

Also, I know this is fiction, but the fact that her hair did not match her father’s nor mother’s hair gives a bit of leeway to thinking that maybe she wasn’t their real daughter, maybe they adopted her. Of course, this is farfetched but nevertheless, interesting.

Much of the movie plays as if she was having dreams – and maybe she was. Nightmares of an evil past. As she starts to create a new garden and sow the new seeds, new flowers can grow, with help from everyone that surrounds her, because she is finally out of an abusive environment, even if this one isn’t perfect – you know you can count on them to give you means to fight and when you can’t handle it alone, they got your back.