Good Example Of Book Review On The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

The book, “the ocean at the end of the lane," by Neil Gaiman, starts with a prologue that acts as a window to the idea in it. The prologue begins with the narrator at a funeral, dressed for the occasion. He states that he has done his part through the speech that he was to give. The writer wants to escape the tense situation in meeting all the people that he had known when he lived in his hometown. Page nine discloses the narrator’s discomfort at being asked personal questions when his life was so unorthodox. He was divorced, practiced pure art and was not seeing anyone. His children had not made it to the funeral.
He escapes such questions and drives as he remembers memorable moments such as the girl he had been with when he was sixteen. He stumbles into Lettie’s house, and all the childhood memories come back when he is at the pond that Lettie had referred to as the ocean when she was eleven (page 14). The first chapter talks about how the narrator felt when people did not go to his seventh birthday party (page 16). He was sad and felt undoubtedly betrayed by people he assumed were his friends. He notes that books are better and more comforting than people are.
His father brings him a cat that he loves dearly until it is ran over by the South African man who replaces it with a cat with one ear. I can relate to the first part of the book. I had been away from my then stressful hometown for a long time and remembered how odd it felt to meet many people that I had not seen for a long time. In addition, the birthday incident reminded me of how sad I was at my eleventh birthday party when I had only three guests, none of whom were close to me. My best friend had fractured her ankle and could not make it.
Page seventeen highlights how the narrator lost his room when his family became poor. The narrator liked his room upstairs because it assured him of his security. He could leave his door open and get the assurance that adults were downstairs and then he would not feel lonely. In his little room, the narrator could read. He found books soothing and devoid of the complexities that often characterized adults. He could also leave his light on so that he would not be scared. It all changed when his father told him they no longer had money and would need to sacrifice. He moved in with his sister that he argued with daily and his room was rented to different people, one of whom killed himself.
He meets Lettie in a scandalized incident involving his father’s stolen car. She takes him to her farm where she introduces him to her “ocean.” The third chapter begins when the narrator gains some money. He earns twenty-five thousand pounds from his grandmother on his birthday through a postcard. Prior, he had been given a coin that a fish in Lettie’s pond had swallowed. She told him to go buy sweets in it. Later, the narrator wakes up choking with a shilling in his throat but is afraid to tell anyone and observes that adults do not usually believe him. He goes to Lettie’s house, and she explains that someone has been giving poor people money in their dreams.
Page 17 reminds me of how scared I used to be in my room. I relate to the writer when he talks about leaving the door open and the lights on. I used to be shamelessly scared of the dark and would not go to sleep unless the lights were on. My room was my sanctuary of hiding way from people and cocooning in my fears.
Page 53 highlights what the writer and her friend Lettie go through in their effort to rid him of the power that the gray lady had done to him in his dream. Lettie takes him to a place that seems as though it is a part of another mystical world. The narrator is instructed to hold her hand and never let go. The narrator lets go at some point, and he is attacked by worms that find themselves in his foot. Unknowingly, Lettie assumes that all is well after the narrator affirms so.
Page 58 through to 60 opens another chapter into the worm adventure. The writer describes his sister’s hair ritual and wonders why she had to brush her hair so ruthlessly over and over. He seeks leave into the bathroom and pulls out the worm in his foot under the intense heat from the hot shower. He notes that he did not ask adults for help and preferred to do things himself. When the worm is out, he goes back to his room and waits until his snitch sister is asleep before reading a mystery book.
The writer reminded me of a few instances in my life. For example, the story of worms and the mystical world was a reminder of my reading of books embroidered in stories such as Alice in Wonderland. The other comics were also full of scary, but exciting stories when I was young. Furthermore, he reminded me of how I used to read books that I was banned from reading because they scared me at night. Same as the writer, I would wait until everybody was asleep and indulge in dangerous mystery reading.
Page 63 through to 70 explains the presence of Ursula, the new nanny that the narrator’s mother had brought for them. His mother found a job and hired her in exchange for a place that she could stay for a few months. The narrator immediately feels uncomfortable with her presence and said his heart was in pain. The pain was not used metaphorically or figuratively. He is uncomfortable when his sister, who is in love with her, produces a coin that was in the purse that she gave her. The narrator recognizes her as the evil gray monster from the place he and Lettie had visited.
Correspondingly, the pages talk about how the writer cannot comprehend adult life. Adults are identified as being interested in books that are weird, and the narrator could not understand why they did not enjoy comics and children stories that were more exciting. He explains how Ursula was bad, and nobody cared enough to make her go away. Page 79 talks about how his father changed because of Ursula. He laughed at her jokes and seemed to enjoy her company, much to the narrator’s dismay. The narrator finally, and with great effort, sums up the courage to conjure his father into believing that she is a monster, and he attempts to drown him when he refuses to apologize.
The two chapters remind me of when I had a disagreement with my father and he vehemently refused to believe I was right. I tried explaining that the fight I had been involved with was the fault of another pupil at school. He refused to believe me and punished me. The student who had started the fight was the perfect model child that nobody thought capable of any ill.
Page 89 all the way to 100 talks of the events that follow the drowning incident. The narrator finds himself locked in his bedroom as Ursula threatens to lock him the attic. His father has an affair with her. He is under her influence and would do all the things that she demanded of him. The narrator felt trapped by his once perfect home and family. He was alone, and nobody understands his predicament except for Lettie. He runs away from home to vehemently look for her and Ursula, who lives inside of him, finds him. Lettie rescues him from her.
Page 108 is about how the family of Lettice took him in and decided to help with his situation. He explains his shyness at having to undress before strangers when they prepare a bath for him. They take care of him and assist him control the effect of the worm inside him. When I was nine, right about the time my father punished me for something I did not do, I ran away and was housed at my friend’s place. Just like what happened in the story, my father came to look for me at my friend’s house. The difference is that he came to say he was sorry.
Page 124, as the book approaches its end, talks about grown-ups. The narrator notes that adults and monsters are not afraid of anything. He looks at it from the perspective of a young boy who is in an emotional journey as he tries to understand the world of the adults. His friend Lettie explains that adults are not grown on the inside. They too are scared of things and are only grown because of age and size. They proceed to get rid of Ursula through rituals that Lettie intended to perform.
Page 142 talks about the surprise that the narrator had when Ursula cried. In his understanding, adults are not supposed to cry, and he had only seen that twice in his life. The chapter explains the process that involved Ursula, the worm, being extracted from the body of the narrator. The worm insists that it was only inside him because it was fulfilling its duty of making people happy.
The chapter on adults reminded me of how I perceived them when I was a child. They were like supernatural being who were incapable of hurting, crying or understanding anything. It is a no wonder the narrator classified adults with monsters. I saw them as people who would never understand, and who knew how to maneuver themselves.
The main character in this book is the narrator that remains unidentified in all the chapters. He is a seven-year-old who exhibits courage and a sense of assertiveness. He understands his world as being perfect and that of adults as being weird. He is also a person that is intelligence and can decipher things from his little understanding of the world around him. The antagonist in this narrative is Ursula, the housekeeper who is an evil worm. She is the cause of the disruption of the narrator’s perfect word.
In addition, she causes a lot of suffering to the narrator and his family and wants him to have a hard life. The book uses symbolism in the aspect of the coin that the narrator is given and swallows in his dream. The coin is the source of his problems and symbolizes the evilness that money brings. People often want money, as the worm (Ursula), explains so that they can be happy. However, the money brings many unfortunate events together with it. The book also employs the theme of friendship, sibling rivalry, and women empowerment. Lettie and the narrator form a sweet bond, and she helps him cope.
The narrator and his sister are often involved in battles over space and superiority. Lettie and her family are comprised of women only. They partake in activities that the society at the time perceived to belong to men. They have a big piece of land; they farm, own livestock, and are not afraid of Ursula. They help the narrator in his fight.