The Graveyard Book Essay

Theme Good Vs Evil in The Graveyard Book

In The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Jack was a killer who entered in a home in the middle of the night with a knife. He used the knife and kill three people in the house, the mother, the father, and the older sister. While the baby was woken up he heard his family being killed, so he jumped out of his crib, left the house and went up to the hill in the graveyard. When Jack went to the crib to kill the eighteen-month-old baby, he then realized that the baby was not there. To finish his job he got out of the house and followed the baby’s smell to the graveyard. Theme “The Theme of a book is a message that creates an understanding about life, human nature, or elements of society” (Lukens 57). The author

establish the theme how when choosing good vs evil can impact someone’s life in a positive way.
The baby met two ghost at the graveyard: Mr.

and Mrs. Owens. The baby’s family who were now ghost asked the Owens couple to adopt and protect the baby from Jack, the murderer. Mrs. Owens name the baby Nobody Owens or Bod as a nickname. The ghosts that were living in the graveyard accept for the baby to leave in the graveyard with the Owens couple. The book referred to Silas as a guardian to the baby. The author mention that Silas was neither or a human. As a result, Silas had the ability to leave the graveyard to get supplies for the baby. Bod learned to read and write at four years old. According to the author, “Every day Bod would take his paper and crayons into the graveyard and he would copy names and words and numbers as best he could, and each night, before Silas would go off into the world, Bod would make Silas explain to him what he had written, and make him translate the snatches of Latin which had, for the most part baffled the Owenses” (Gaiman 39). Bod had a new friend named Scarlett Amber Perkins who was alive. She always come to the graveyard and play with him. Sadly the friendship did not last for too long because after Scarlett and Bod went to the oldest resident in the graveyard, she came back a few days later to say bye to him because her parents were moving to Scotland. She told him how much she believed in him and she thought that Bod was

brave.
One day Silas brought in a substitute guardian name Miss Lupescu, at that time Bod was only six years old. She taught him many things, for example how to call for help in different language which is going to help him save his life in the future. Bod did not really like Miss Lupescu because she is a little too hard. Because of Miss Lupescu, Bod was able to save his life by calling for help in the language of the night-gaunts that he learn from Miss Lupescu which is “yes” when the ghouls wanted to kill and eat him. Miss Lupescu is actually a werewolf, in other to save Bod, she takes her werewolf form she save him from the ghouls. Bod who did not live Miss Lupescu from the beginning found out that she is a Hound of God, meaning she’s against and chases down evil people. When Bod was about ten years old he learns that his family was murder, and that the killer is still looking for him. He has Silas sign him up for regular school in secret because he wants revenge for his family. “Growing up in this strange setting entails many adventures, from getting kidnapped by ghouls, to procuring a headstones for a shunned young who man who was ‘drowned and burned’ as a witch, to, most dangerous of all, attending school with other living children all of which prepare Bod for a final showdown with the man Jack, who has never stopped hunting him. Lucid, evocative prose and dark fairytale motifs imbue the story with dreamlike quality” (Gross 703-704).
The author did a great job describing Bod’s life in the graveyard after his family’s death. The beginning of the book is very scary and shocking, but when getting through it is appear to be interesting to see how the Bod grow up and became interesting in learning how to read, meeting new people and making new friends. In the end of the book readers see Bod lost his freedom in the graveyard, and he left the graveyard by himself, with a passport, money and big dreams.

Works Cited
Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. New York: Harper Collins, 2008. Print.
GROSS, CLAIRE E. "The Graveyard Book." Horn Book Magazine 84.6 (2008): 703-704. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 May 2015.
Lukens, Rebecca J. A Critical Handbook of Children's Literature. New York, 2013. Print.