`` High Fantasy, Rites Of Passage And Cultural Value `` By Jean Murray Walker

The Graveyard Book is a children's fantasy fiction novel by author Neil Gaiman, which was published in Britain and America during 2008. The Graveyard Book explains the story of how a young boy, Nobody "Bod" Owens, is orphaned after a mysterious man named Jack brutally murders his parent’s and older sister; who is then adopted and raised by the Owenses’, ghosts, and Bod is given free reign of the graveyard. As Bod ages, he faces many struggles, from learning, facing other devilish creatures, such as the ghouls, and later facing the man that had assassinated his family for the sake of an order of Jacks of All Trades. Throughout reading the book, we are numerous themes presented in Gaiman’s book, ranging from relationships between the living and dead, to psychopomps and other beings, and one of the most noticeable, good versus evil. In further examining the themes portrayed in

The idea of death can be, and is an enormously disturbing, unknown issue in which many people can have many different opinions. To some individuals, the process of life can progress painstakingly slow, while for others life moves too fast. In the excerpt We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates, a innocent farm boy named Judd Mulvaney has an eye-opening encounter by a brook near his driveway. During this encounter, Judd faces a chain of feelings and emotions that lead to his change of opinion of the issues of life and death, and change as a character. This emblematic imagery of life and death, as well as jumpy, and retrospective tones benefit the development of Judd as an innocent child as he begins to change into a more conscious and aware adult.

Imagine being stabbed by an unrepentant murderer before a date, but you realize only then your life truly begins. The protagonist in Gary Soto’s The Afterlife, Chuy, becomes a spirit and finds himself stuck in a world between the living and the dead. Chuy observes the daily lives of his grief-stricken family and friends which sparks a sudden hatred towards his murderer. As he transitions into the afterlife, he undergoes several significant physical and emotional transformations and develops a love for a ghostly girl who committed suicide.

When readers read a story written by an author they will usually think that the author likes to read books and is what led the author to writing a book. William Goldman said, “As a child, I had no Interest in reading” (Goldman 3), this can lead readers to imagining the author as a young child rather than an adult not wanting to read a book. When Readers imagine the author as a young child the image imagined can give a better sense of how the author felt as a young child. The imagination of a child giving the reader a picture to think about is less complex than that of a adult giving a reader a picture to think about.

To begin, the speaker of the poem “Thou famished grave” presents a resentful and aggressive attitude towards death. The poem, addressed to a “ famished grave” (1), personifies a grave as a starving beast that can “roar” (2), “gnaw” (3), and has “dismal jaws” (7). This represents death in a negative way because the description of the beast make it seem unpleasant and to be feared. Furthermore, the poem includes words and phrases when addressing the grave that follow the theme of starvation, such as, “famished grave” (1), “Gnaw thine own sides, fast on” (3), and “I cannot starve thee out: I am thy prey” which emphasizes that the beast of death is starving to take someone’s life. This animal-like aggressiveness adds to the already negative image of the beast. This imagery also shows how the speakers thinks of death since it comes from her words which shows that she sees death in a very negative way. Due to this, the speaker is angry and does not want to give death what it wants, which is to take someone’s life. Additionally, although death is something normally feared, the speaker shows that she is not fearful by saying “I have no fear / of thy dark project” (3-4) when speaking to the grave. She expresses that she does not want to die and her “heart is set / On living” (4-5), which explains her resentfulness towards death. She also understands that death is inevitable as she says, “I cannot starve thee out: I am thy prey / And thou shalt have me; but I dare defend / That I can stave thee off” (6-8). This shows that even though she knows that she will one day die, she still doesn’t want to give death what it wants and will fight as long as she can

Emily Dickinson is one of the most important American poets of the 1800s. Dickinson, who was known to be quite the recluse, lived and died in the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, spending the majority of her days alone in her room writing poetry. What few friends she did have would testify that Dickinson was a rather introverted and melancholy person, which shows in a number of her poems where regular themes include death and mortality. One such poem that exemplifies her “dark side” is, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. In this piece, Dickinson tells the story of a soul’s transition into the afterlife showing that time and death have outright power over our lives and can make what was once significant become meaningless.

Children’s literature can take many forms, from far-fetching science fiction to spell binding who-done-it mysteries. One of the most popular ideas presented in these various forms is that of escapism. The characters in these stories explore quite complex social issues in ways that are less confrontational then realism. One might consider why escape is such a central theme; as a child there are numerous benefits to fantasy, it allows readers to experiment with different views of the world and takes hypothetical situations and invites them to make connections between this fictive scenario and their own reality. John Stephens an English professor at Macquarie University has said “ Fantasy writing operates through metaphor- so that the unfamiliar is used to stand in for, or comment upon, the familiar.”

In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell states, “…myths offer life models. But the models have to be appropriate to the time in which you are living, and our time has changed so fast that what was proper fifty years ago is not proper today. The virtues of the past are the vices of today. And many of what were thought to be the vices of the past are the necessities of today. The moral order has to catch up with the moral necessities of actual life in time, here and now. And that is what we are not doing.” I support Joseph Campbell’s stance that ideals and paradigms we rely on now have changed over time and will change in time. Myths are used as a tool to teach children the conduct they should be exhibiting. Nonetheless, these myths and conducts

In Neil Gaiman’s, The Graveyard Book there are multiple themes that one could get from this story.This story is about a young boy. His family was brutally murdered, but he managed to escape in time. The young boy wandered off into a graveyard where he was taken under the wing of some friendly ghost. They then named him Nobody, later shortened to Bod, and raised him. Bod was finding himself on his amazing adventure through the graveyard, meeting new friends and learning to adjust to his abnormal life. In the end, all bonds tie together is the overall theme expressed throughout the book.

In the novels that I have chosen to study, several themes are prominent in both. Both novels deal with a brutal murder of a young female, and the impact surrounding her death. They also deal with the idea of the dead, directly or indirectly communicating with the living. The novels address the theory that ‘ghosts’ cannot move onto the next life until they have resolved unfinished business on Earth. The idea that the living are tied to those who die and untimely death is also present in both novels. As well as these themes which are present in both novels, the novels also share a similar non linear

The Graveyard Book written by Neil Gaiman is a fictional book published in 2008. The setting in the beginning of the story is in a house in the middle of the night, but it very quickly transitions to a graveyard. Towards the end, the setting is all throughout the town, in which the house and graveyard are located. This book is written in the third person point of view. Having a third person point of view helps the author tell the story the way he wants to by not showing an emotional connection with the protagonist but still making the reader develop positive emotions toward the protagonist.

American values are among the attributes which make a person who they are. Many fail to understand them, there are the standards used to define these ‘values.’ American values are an individual’s belief system set over time, the decisions they make in their life, their morals and what it means to be an American citizen. Few of these notable values that Americans have stayed true to are present in the Disney film, The Lion King. The film itself may dismiss to be nothing more than a childhood fairy tale; however, it reflects much of how American Values are seen in the arts today.

Doughty, A. A. (2013). 'Throw the Book Away': Reading versus Experience in Children's Fantasy. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

I also agree with your point about the alternative worlds in children’s literature. These novels are relatable to children.

Everyone has different personality traits. These affect how we react to people, important decisions, and situations. You are shaped by your family, and your education. In Bod’s early childhood, he was raised and taught by the different dead people in the graveyard. Bod’s life starts resembling his family, friends, and education. He tends to take on attributes of the dead people he meets in the graveyard. However, fortunately for Bod he has human interactions with people outside of the graveyard. Bod’s human interactions with Scarlett, Abanazer Bolger, and the bullies at school give him more characteristics of life than death in Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book.