Rescue in Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy & Coraline - Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

Rescue can be understood as the ability of a person to save another from imminent danger or risk. The stories, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Adams Douglas and Coraline by Gaiman address the topic of rescue but from very different standpoints. This essay will use gender analysis as a type of literary criticism to dissect rescue in both stories as well as delve into how both authors perceive gender analysis. Both Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Coraline are stories that address the issue of rescue though from very different perspectives with the latter using a young girl while the former uses a male alien to conduct the rescue.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Caroline is a story about the rescue of the parents. The girl named Caroline discovers that her real parents were trapped and needed to be rescued. Caroline finds herself entangled between two parents; her real parents and her other parents whom she comes to meet in the house they live in. While the story is shrouded in mystery, fantasy, and superstitions (Vineberg 49). The author craftily weaves through the lives of different characters and the assistance that they require. Caroline finds herself trapped when her real parents disappear, and it does not take a long to realize that the responsibility to save her parents and herself rested solely on her shoulders.

Coraline is a story about how the character Caroline faces difficulties and uncertainties which build on her independence and identity. Viewing the book from the lens of literary criticism, it is possible to apply gender analysis as an essential part of the text. Unlike many ghost-based tales that rely on male characters as the protagonist, Coraline uses a young female character as the protagonists, and even in the face of difficulties, she does not shy away from using her energy and wit to bring solutions (Gaiman 8). Caroline, the protagonist, is fully rounded, coherent and stable.

When her real parents are entangled in a web of challenges, one would have thought that that was the end of the family as Caroline appears too frail to front a successful rescue operation. The fact that she is female adds to the fragility. Contrary to the normal belief that a female character is both weak and fragile, Caroline muzzles all her energy and wit to rescue her parents from the beldam (Richards 56). She consciously and bravely explores the "other" world, which is rather frightening, and she is able to rescue the souls the trapped children, trick her way to the door and return to her own world.

Since a young age, Caroline's life as difficult as she has to cope with the funny state of her real neighbors, her "other" mother, and the mysteries of the black cats. In her quest to free herself and her parents, she is helped by three young ghosts as well as a talking cat (Gaiman 4). For a character, the age and gender of Caroline, it would not have been possible to achieve all these. As a reader, one would have thought that Caroline would freeze and abandon the mission of rescuing herself and her parents at worst. At best, Caroline would have settled on rescuing herself and ignore her parents (Rudd 162). However, Caroline does none of these. Her aim is to rescue herself and her parents. No limitation is too big for her to handle. Her age and her gender do not come to distract her. She is determined and ambitious.

In Coraline, the topic of rescue is so dramatic since the rescuer, Caroline, has to handle her rescue as well as that of her parents. The rescue is also not a simple one since it involves dealing with some supernatural forces (Rudd 160). Besides, the rescuer is a child trying to rescue her parents. In normal literature, one would have expected the parents to be the ones rescuing the child. However, the author reverses the roles to show that there is the ability to achieve anything to whoever is willing to. The author further seems to communicate that wit and courage outweigh age and gender.

The book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is written by Adams Douglas and also looks at the issue of rescue. The book does not handle common themes as it makes reference to terrestrial bodies and the planets. The book handles the topic of rescue in very candid manner. In the story, the rescue operation is done by a know-all alien known as Ford Prefect who works as a researcher (Saidel 130). Ford Prefect is a useful contributor to an electronic encyclopedia that contains a lot of information, some of it useful and other information bizarre.

The earth gets destroyed by the Vogons, and some characters survive. Among the survivors is Arthur Dent. Dent finds himself entangled in a web that he is not able to win by himself. From the beginning of the story, Dent has a feeling about something strange happening to him (Saidel 129). He acknowledges that he feels something happening in the world which he does not exactly know what it is. Despite this unexplainable feeling, he does not seem to care too much about it since it is the nature of life. According to Dent, life is generally puzzling and unforeseen twists. When the world is "boiled away into space," Dent gets more confused, and he is unable to explain why things happen the way they do (Adams 32). As he and Ford Prefect hike across the galaxy, Dent does not foresee danger, although he is conscious of the rampant changes he experiences in his life and the environment around him.

Despite this, Dent sees life as something that ought to be enjoyed. According to him, it is the unpredictability of life that makes it interesting. He befriends Ford Prefect who becomes his savior at the time of need. He also becomes a mentor during his time of struggle.

Rescue in this story is carried out by a character who is not human. It is Ford Prefect, an alien who rescue Dent when the earth is demolished. Although Prefect was not human, he had been stranded on Earth for about fifteen years. The decision of the author to use an alien to save a human being served to show that there are things that are stronger than human beings (Adams 32). People who have never heard of things such as aliens consider human beings as the strongest creatures that exist. However, there are other creatures such as the aliens which have supernatural powers that supersede human beings. The author might have done this deliberately to affirm Dent's thoughts that there was no need to worry about things that one cannot change.

Looking at gender criticism, the author chooses to use masculinity to front his theme. In the rescue scene, he uses Dent, who is young male aged about thirty years. He is also described as being tall and dark-haired, who tries to cope with the changes he experiences especially when he is being shuttled around the galaxy. In the same manner, Ford Prefect is also male, and he serves a great role not only to rescue Dent but also to mentor him during the space adventures (Saidel 129). The author uses the gender of Prefect to be able to match him with the traits he possesses. He is described as a character who is more realistic than Dent. He views events realistically, and in times of danger, he stays calm as he finds for a way to escape. From his actions, it is possible to describe him as a brave, energetic and realistic character.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the stories Coraline and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy address the topic of rescue from different viewpoints. In both stories, rescue is treated as a means of saving a character from certain dangers. In Coraline, the rescue is done by a young girl who rescues her parents from the ghosts and also rescues herself. In this sense, the author seeks to change the notion held by many that women are weaker and unable to conduct difficult tasks such as rescue missions. To show the strength of women, the author uses a young girl. In Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galax, the author uses a male alien to conduct the rescue mission. By and large, while both stories are about rescue, they handle it from very different standpoints.

Works Cited

Adams, Douglas. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. London: Pan Macmillan, 2001. Print.

Gaiman, N. Coraline. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 2008. Print.

Richards, I. A. (2017). Principles of Literary Criticism. RoutledgeRudd, David. "An Eye for an I: Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Questions of Identity." Children's Literature in Education, vol. 39, no. 3, Sept. 2008, pp. 159-168. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10583-008-9067-7.

Saidel, Eric. "Philosophy & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 65, no. 258, Jan. 2015, pp. 128-131. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1093/pq/pqu057.

Vineberg, Steve. "Coraline." Christian Century, vol. 126, no. 7, Apr. 2009, p. 49. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=37251150&site=ehost-live.