Neil Gaiman Themes

When Neil Gaiman writes a novel, regardless of the intended age group, he always has similar themes and a similar writing style. The novels Neverwhere, Fortunately the Milk, and Coraline by Neil Gaiman are all set in the present time and involve the world we know, but also include the expansion of a fantasy world. All of the novel's start in a world we are familiar with, but then the protagonist finds a door or portal to the other mystical fantasy world. In Neverwhere, Richard lives in current day London but is then brought to “London Below”, a peculiar world filled with strange creatures accessed through doors in the London Subway (“Neverwhere” 348). In Fortunately the Milk, the dad went on a journey through time when he goes out to buy

In Neverwhere, the character Door brings Richard to the London Below and helps him through the dangerous underground. Dr Steg, who is very familiar with the rules of time travel, helps the father navigate the tricky world of time hopping in the novel, Fortunately the Milk. The big difference in Coraline is that the mentor, the cat, is present in both the realistic world and the magical, fantasy world. These mentors are necessary in the story because it allows the mentor to explain the world to the reader without the reader being told directly. In Fortunately the Milk, Dr. Steg warns that father that “if the same object from two different times touches itself… the universe will cease to exist” (“Fortunately” 51). This is crucial information for the reader to know because at the end the father threatens to touch two objects from different times together. It is also present in Coraline when the cat is explaining why the other mother wants Caroline and say that she “wants something to love… something that isn’t her” ( “Coraline” 65)”. This is important because it gives the reader an insight into why the other mother does what she does, which the reader doesn’t know until this point. The way Gaiman gives readers information through the mentor character in present in other novels such as Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. In this novel, the main