Zach Glazer Ms. SL C Block One Life, Two Worlds In people's lives, there are many things they rely on, such as family, friends, school and sports. People also may have safe havens, which are places where they can be alone and comfortable. In The Ocean at The End of the Lane, the narrator finds books as his haven and something on which he can rely. Growing up, without much attention from his family or friends, he would use books as a source of education, a distraction, and finally as a calming tool. He eventually starts to live in two worlds, one being the normal world, and the other being the world of books. This eventually changes when he meets Lettie, and she replaces his need for books. Before meeting Lettie Hempstock, the narrator …show more content…
This happens many times throughout the story, one example is on page 71 the narrator states, “I took my book into the back garden, beneath the balcony, by the flower bed that grew beneath the television room window, and I read-forgetting my hunger” (Gaiman). When the narrator met Ursula, he saw her differently, she reminded him of the tent that he and Lettie ran into in the woods. When Ursula made him lunch one day he refused to eat it, so he ran away and read, which distracted him from not only his hunger but also Ursula. Also, up until the narrator met Lettie, he did not trust anyone but himself. He states, “I went away in my head, into a book. That was where I went whenever real life was too hard or too inflexible” (Gaimen, 77). Often, when the narrator was in a time of struggle, he would just dive into the world of books. Due to these times, the narrator started to often alternate between the two worlds. The first world is with Ursula Monkton and his dad who constantly revolted against him, and the other world is books. The world of books was seen as a world of endless thoughts, he would get lost in his books and forget about whatever was bothering him. Overall, before he had Lettie to help him solve his problems, books were used as a source of distraction for the