The Ocean At The End Of The Lane Analysis

Chofia Basumatary

Course Instructor- Shelmi Sankhil

Reading Fantasy: C.S Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien

MA English (4th Sem)

15 February 2017

Fleeting Memories of a Chilling Childhood

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

By Neil Gaiman

“I liked myths. They weren’t adult stories and they weren’t children’s stories. They were better than that. They just were”. These lines echo ubiquitously through the entire novel of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Gaiman very successfully interweaves the nuances of adulthood and childhood, through the grim and chilling tale of the narrator who visits his hometown after a lapse of thirty years. Gaiman has yet again done an excellent job in catering to an audience not necessarily only children, as he had

He had apparently had his share of troubles in the world and the narration gives us the notion that he was quite tired of his life and a failed relationship. It is definitely not a children’s fantasy rather it is a novel which delves further into the issue of identity search and the difficulties we face in accordance with our ages. It could have been easily argued that the relevant issues did not require the use of phantasmagoria but then what could have explained something which the narrator had experienced in his life and was incomprehensible to the unbelieving eyes. In saying this, the novel maybe branded as an allegory of sorts, however, it has the elements of a dual world existing in the same

Ursula actually is able to turn his father against him and almost drowns him in the bathtub. He drifts away from his family and he was never quite close to his sister either. Heartbroken and fearful of his own father the narrator runs away from his home, chased by the evil Urusula at night when heavens were pouring out with all its might. This is a chilling nightmare any child or adult would want to be in. It sends shudders through the readers as one visualizes the rain, the evil and one little boy chased by