Real Dragons: Monster Symbolism in Maurice Sendak’s <i>Outside Over There</i>, Neil Gaiman’s <i>Coraline</i>, and Patrick Ness’ <i>A Monster Calls</i>

  • Kevin Sun La Trobe University

Abstract

Didacticism plays a key role in fantasy horror literature for children, striving to teach some sort of lesson. These lessons are, at least in good fiction, not told by heavy-handed exposition, but instead shown through literary tools. In this paper, I will analyze Maurice Sendak’s Outside Over There, Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, and Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls to show how monsters function as one of these tools. The monsters in these three stories are malicious external threats, yet symbolize the internal struggles of selfishness, dependence, and guilt respectively, and in defeating these monsters through the support of adult influence, each protagonist gains insight that reflects the didactic lessons of the stories. These stories are horrific not because they feature monsters, but because they deal with issues that violate fundamental values in the symbolic childhood of Western culture. Monsters, terrifying yet vulnerable, make the horror bearable.

Author Biography

Kevin Sun, La Trobe University
David Beagley is Lecturer in Children's Literature and Literacy at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus, Victoria, Australia, where he teaches units in Genres, History, Australian and Post-colonial children's literature, and in Fiction for Young Adults. He has previously taught English, Literature, History and Drama in secondary schools, and has been a school and university librarian. He is interested in the history of traditional "boys' adventure" stories, especially those involving aircraft.
Published
2018-11-08
Issue
Vol. 21 No. 1 (2018)
Section
Emerging Voices
Essays and articles published in The Looking Glass may be reproduced for non-profit use by any educational or public institution; letters to the editor and on-site comments made by our readers may not be used without the expressed permission of that individual. Any commercial use of this journal, in whole or in part, by any means, is prohibited. Authors of accepted articles assign to The Looking Glass the right to publish and distribute their text electronically and to archive and make it permanently available electronically. They retain the copyright and, 90 days after initial publication, may republish it in any form they wish as long as The Looking Glass is acknowledged as the original source.