In everything we read and write there are always symbols in them, we may not realize them some times but they are there. Symbols are defined is a letter, object, mark that represents something completely different. In Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline” and Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” were see many symbols that are in some way quite similar. Coraline is about a little 12-year-old girl named you guessed it Coraline, who moves into a flat with her parents. On one rainy day she is stuck inside the house and decides to explore and finds a locked door in the drawing room she decides to open it but finds it a brick wall behind it. But when she’s home by herself the door turns into a passage way to the “other world” which is the complete opposite of her world. She finds it completely better then her own world but it soon turns to fun and games to battle to save herself and her parents. Spirited Away is about a 10-year-old named Chihiro, who is moving into a new town with her parents. They get lost on the way, and stumble upon an abandoned amusement park. Chihiro's father decides to explore it with Chihiro and her mother. They soon discover a stall with food, and Chihiro's parents start sampling the food, but find themselves unable to stop eating. Chihiro soon realizes that she's in a magical world when she sees her parents literally turn into pigs, now she has to escape the world and save her parents.
Some of the symbols that Coraline and Spirited Away share are in one was food. Food played a huge role in both stories, in Coraline when ever Coraline would visit the other world, her other mother would feed her as soon as she got there in a way it was a way for her to stay in the world or some kind of mood switcher for her, similar in Spirited Away, when Chihiro had to eat some food in the abandoned amusement park for she would disappear in the spirit world. Another symbol was the use of a “magical” item, In Coraline’s case it was the stone with the hole that she received from Miss Spink and Forcible when she first introduced herself, a with the stone came the advice to not to wear green. The stone with the hole symbolizes that no matter what you can always see through the fake personal people but on. In Spirited Away, Chihiro receives a plant like ball that has special healing powers, from a very rich and well-known river spirit. The ball becomes really handy after Haku is hurt. Twins is a big symbol is both stories. In Coraline, her real mother has a twin the “other” mother, who is the complete opposite of her in the forms of cooking and dressing etc. but looks just like her minus the button eyes. In Spirited Away, Chihiro works for the evil which Yubaba who is the owner of the bathhouse; Zeniba is Yubaba’s twin sister and is the complete opposite of her, where Yubaba is mean, evil, greedy Zeniba is a sweet old lady, and is called granny. The twins symbolize to me that there are two sides to a person it’s up to them to choose which one they show.
One common theme that I saw in both stories other then the food was the parents. In both stories the parents were too busy with their own work to pay attention to their kids. Coraline’s parents were too busy with their work that they rarely paid any attention to her, resulting in the other mother knowing how to make her think the other world was better. Chihiro’s parents ignored her wishes of them not to enter the amusement park and to not eat the strange food the just appeared out of not where. But they ignored her and got themselves turned into pigs, where in Coraline, where the other mother trapped her parents. Another theme is the battle of good and evil, Coraline was the battle between her and the other mother to save herself and her parents. She had to go toe to toe and challenge the other mother to a game to find her parents and to free the souls of the children before her, which the other mother took and hide them in the world around her. Spirited Away the battle of good vs. evil was between Yubaba and Chihiro, where she had to save Haku from Yubaba’s control and she also when toe to toe with Yubaba and tells here she will go to Zeniba to save Haku and to save her parents where Yubaba tries to trick her but fails.
The differences in the two stories are for one the regions of where the stories take place. Another one is that both are allowed to leave the world they enter but in Coraline’s case she can come and go to that world as she pleases, while Chihiro can’t leave because there is no telling where the bath house may appear also what would happen to her parents. Another difference in the stories is the way they are treated in the stories. Coraline is pampered in the other world, she is given everything she asks for while Chihiro is put to work in the bath house so she has a place to sleep and etc., while Coraline as to do nothing but to eat, sleep and visit her other friends in the flat. Some of the similarities were for one both of the main characters where girls, both had to save their parents, also the change from winy kids to adults. In the beginning of the story both characters were winy like kids, and through the story they made a change and started to mature responsible kids. Also how both villains tried to trick the heroes but they didn’t fall of it.
We often talk of stories being the same as other but with different twists, which is often true in every story there is an outline of what happens but some times put into steps or parts in the story. I think that’s why people think the stories “speak to each other” but they are just saying the same thing, same concept different stories.
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