Names
I'm going to go ahead and assume that everyone's finished reading Coraline. If not...oh, well.
Anyway, as someone whose name gets mispronounced a lot, I was particularly interested in the Coraline/Caroline thing. Do you guys think that there was anything specific behind that, or was it just a detail to fill it out more? I mean, surely it was significant that everyone pronounced it wrong in the beginning, but when she went through the door, everyone got it right, and then after she came back, it stuck with people when she corrected them.
There also seems to be a lot of emphasis put on names in general, from the cat who has no name, to the children who have forgotten theirs, etc. Any thoughts?
Anyway, as someone whose name gets mispronounced a lot, I was particularly interested in the Coraline/Caroline thing. Do you guys think that there was anything specific behind that, or was it just a detail to fill it out more? I mean, surely it was significant that everyone pronounced it wrong in the beginning, but when she went through the door, everyone got it right, and then after she came back, it stuck with people when she corrected them.
There also seems to be a lot of emphasis put on names in general, from the cat who has no name, to the children who have forgotten theirs, etc. Any thoughts?
posted by Tara at 4:31 PM
4 Comments:
I think part of the Caroline/Coraline issue was that, in the beginning, no one listened to Coraline when she tried to correct them--she couldn't make herself be heard, as I believe the Other Mother makes an issue of later on, as one of the reasons Coraline should stay with her instead. When she gets back, she's grown enough that she can make the adults listen to her, and call her by her right name.
yeah i definitely feel like some of the initial appeal coraline had of the other family was because of them knowing her name right away...great point!
Coralline (note the xtra l)is a type of sea algae, among other things, that are red in color.
She did just kind of flow from point to point throughout the book. Though if you read through the lense of coralline rock, which is made from lifeless layers of dead algae, it's much more telling: other mother only wanted to keep her soulless husk, something numb and hollow she keeps in the pantry with the apparitions of her other "precious" things.
Hmm.
-Nick.
I felt like this was important also, but maybe not thoroughly explained. I know my own name means a lot to me.
I was originally born in Finland to Finnish parents with the name "Juel", pronounced almost like Jewel. I was adopted at 8 months, and my adopted American parents changed my name to Joel, which is esentially the translation of Juel, and while I only lived 8 months by that name, I am greatful that I was able to keep it without making my parents sound like hippies and going by "Jewel."
I also feel like I can tell the way that people know me or thing about me just by the way that they pronounce "Joel." It seems like everyone has their own way of saying it, be it...
Joe-El
Jole
Joe-wul
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