Pullman's The Golden Compass

Pullman's first novel from the His Dark Materials collection, The Golden Compass has many imaginary and realistic modern-day aspects of the world he envisions; such as Daemons, Dust, and the Alethiometer. The Golden Compass takes place in an alternate universe with definite similarities to that of our own Earth. Slight differences, however, define this innovative and beautiful world Pullman has created for his audience. A key difference between the two worlds is the existence and association of Daemons with Humans. These otherworldly creatures known as Daemons are the window to a person's soul. They expose you for who you really are as a person in the world. Daemons are representation of the emotional and mental state of a person, especially the humans' ‟ souls" which can communicate with their "owners”. Ultimately, revealing their true inner self, intentions and a way of life. Daemons are important throughout the entire novel, because it gives us a look under the mask of each main character presented to us in the novel. This relationship between daemon and human can be observed heavily through Lyra, the main protagonist and her daemon; Pantalaimon and Lord Asriel and his daemon; Stelmaria the Snow Leopard and finally, Mrs. Coulter with her daemon, The Golden Monkey. Daemons associated with different lifestyles and mindsets of their owner. They not only help their predestined owner with various tasks and devising plans, as shown from Lyra, but as well are an external representation of themselves that understand the owner's motives and thinking shown by Mrs. Coulter.

Daemons creates a unique narrative, allowing the author to depict a more intimate view of their human counterpart as well as reveal development of their character and...

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...motional self. We as an audience can analyze characters such as Mrs. Coulture and Lyra; and can clearly see how the two may differ in terms of moral values and pureity. As the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words, and the actions of both Pan and the daemon of Mrs. Colture , the Golden Monkey, speak at great volumes, which also in turn reveals more about their character then they do themselves. The importance of daemons to their human counterparts’ is blanetly evident, without daemons, the humans can’t exist without a daemon and neither can the novel. They lead the novel in a more spontaneous direction as Pan feeds Lyra with ideas, Stelmaria and Lord Asriel attempting to use their cunning wits to help them prevail on their queset to the city in the sky, and even Mrs. Coulture and her golden monkey with they’re mission to obtain Lyra and the Alethoimeter.