Category: I.S Journals (Page 2 of 2)

Prompt: Discuss some element of craft that you appreciated in the second chapter of Neil Gaiman’s “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”.

There’s so much in this chapter that I could focus on, but I really loved the description Gaiman uses. In the first chapter and the prologue, the reader can tell that the main character did not have a happy childhood, but we only see that through the actions of other characters, such as none of his friends showing up to his birthday or his parents not asking about the kitten after it was run over. In chapter two, Gaiman puts in small, but meaningful moments of description that shifts the narrator’s bleak childhood to the moment he finds a true friend. The dark is a prevalent descriptive force during this chapter. Pages 13 and 14 detail how our narrator was terrified of the dark and wanted to keep his door open while he slept, while on page 15, he discusses how his father always burnt the toast in the morning. Our narrator describes the toast as “smoking” and “blackened”. The burnt, dark, toast is carried with our narrator for most of the chapter. He hides it from the other characters in the chapter, either by hiding it in his lap or behind his back. This small piece of description can show us our narrator’s insecurity about his family life, how his father tended to not pay attention to the toast, and by extension, his own son. The dark descriptions are replaced by the color red later on in the chapter, although we get our first glimpse of it on page 16 when the police car passes Lettie Hempstock and her “red, red cheeks”. Everything about Lettie seems to be surrounded by the color red, such as her red-brown hair and her red skirt. By this point, dark colors are all but gone from the narrative, and are replaced by vivid colors. To me, Gaiman’s use of color in this chapter signifies a transition for our main character, from a dull, depressing “blackened” life to one that feels more organic when he meets Lettie and her family with descriptors such as “red” and “apple”. It’s a small part of this chapter, but it really stuck out to me.

Prompt: Discuss some element of craft that you appreciated in the first chapter of Neil Gaiman’s “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”.

I really appreciated the imagery and use of foreshadowing within the prologue and the first chapter. The novella opens with a description of a duck pond, signaling that this would be an important setting for our main character. The duck pond turns out to be incredibly important, as the closer the narrator gets, the more he remembers about his life. On page 8, the pond reaches the height of its importance (for now), when the narrator says, “I remembered that, and remembering that, I remembered everything”. Calling the duck pond an “ocean”, in my opinion, makes me think that Gaiman was alluding to the idea of an ocean of memories. The use of description within the prologue sets the mood, especially through Gaiman’s use of color. Our main character is wearing all black, described as being a “stolen uniform”. This allows the reader to feel the discomfort of the character and, while never specifically said, it is heavily implied that he is there for a funeral. Color is also used while the character returns to his childhood home, driving down a “black tarmac road” before entering a more natural, green area. I feel as though Gaiman uses many instances of imagery to foreshadow the character’s bleak childhood. On page 5, the character drives down a “narrow lane with brambles and briar roses on each side” which then opens up into “nothing but fields on each side of the road…a tangle of meadows”. I particularly enjoyed this section, as it feels as though we are driving with the character through the toughest points of his life until he reaches a point in time where he last had his childhood innocence. Gaiman also solidifies our character’s motivation for the rest of the chapter, which is curiosity. By telling us the character’s motivation, the reader can understand that while he may not have a goal in mind, he is a naturally curious individual. The first chapter, however, shows us that he had a particularly lonely and sad childhood, detailing how no one came to his seventh birthday party and the death of his kitten (I want to personally fight Gaiman now, but we’ll finish the book first). While incredibly sad, I found that the kitten’s death was a great use of symbolism for the loss of our character’s innocence. The reaction of all adults in the scene (his parents, the opal miner) drives the point home, as they have all lost their innocence, they don’t think that the character’s loss of innocence is a big deal and is therefore brushed aside. The last thing I’ll mention is the character’s voice. Gaiman writes chapter 1 with the narrator looking back on his life. Instead of having the character expressing sadness or bitterness, the reader can see that the narrator is pretty matter-of-fact about his childhood. Through his voice, we can see that the now-adult narrator has come to terms with his past, but that leaves the question as to why he has returned to the duck pond.

Prompt: Character Study. Create a character inventory of two characters, each with ten things about him/her/they.

Character 1: Abel (Abe) Turner

• 27 years old, helps run his family business “___”, only child
• Went to local community college to get a business degree
• Soft-spoken, but can be snarky/sarcastic with people he’s comfortable with
• Likes: Cooking, mushrooms, horror novels, puzzles
• Dislikes: Organized religion, driving, crowds/most people
• He has a lack of drive and feels like the only path for him is to continue running the family business, but isn’t sure if he wants to.
• Brushes off his own feelings for others. He thinks he’s being selfless, but to others it comes off as him being selfish
• He tends to wear the same clothes for a few days, only because he forgets to change.
• Figured out that he was bisexual in high school after realizing that most of his friends didn’t think that Orlando Bloom was even a little bit handsome
• He and his family have lived in the same city for their entire lives, though Abel has his own apartment now.

Character 2: Caim

• Age is unknown, though he’s presumed to be very very old.
• His main purpose as a demon is to take on jobs that the Princes of Hell don’t have time for
• He’s a people (demon?) pleaser and tends to be speak loudly
• Likes: Poe’s “Raven”, fencing, ABBA, philosophy, pineapple chicken curry
• Dislikes: Demons that don’t work hard, cats, Dante’s “Inferno”, cold/rainy weather
• Believes that he wants what the Princes of Hell want, but feels out of place most of the time
• Manipulates those around him to in order to accomplish his goals, usually on his masters’ behalf
• Had a human-esq form when Hell was first created, though the Princes of Hell changed him into a bird with clawed hands on the ends of his wings and the ability to speak
• He enjoys when humans use witchcraft to summon him because it is usually a way for him to create a little chaos in the mortal realm.
• Not only does he look up to the Princes of Hell, but he has an unhealthy admiration for lawyers