The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman)

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1. What is the genre?

Global—Horror > Supernatural

Secondary—Worldview > Revelation

2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for the genre?

Conventions

The monster can’t be reasoned with. It is possessed by the spirit of Evil and is present to devour and annihilate: Ursula Monkton refuses the safe passage back to her own realm that Lettie offers her. The hunger birds are summoned to destroy Ursula. But then, the hunger birds become focused on finishing their “cleanup” by eating the narrator’s heart and they cannot be controlled until Lettie is mostly dead and old Gran Hempstock arrives and exerts her supreme power.

Conventional settings within fantastical worlds: The narrator is recalling a summer from his childhood in realistic Sussex. However, a recurring theme in the book is that things are not as they seem. The three kind women down the lane only appear to be human women. What appears to be a realistic pond on their property at the end of the lane is really the titular “ocean,” a portal to the fantastic. Ursula Monkton is an evil spirit that can look like a worm or a human woman. When the hunger birds start eating the world, they simply rip away trees, stars or bits of the sky itself, the very fabric of the world as the narrator sees it, leaving nothing.

Labyrinths. Settings are claustrophobic, concealing the dangers within: There is the narrator’s house garden and lane. He is trapped within these confines, by Ursula, and also because he is a child who cannot get away by himself. There are constant allusions to a larger setting that cannot be seen, the constant reminder that all is not as it seems. Ursula can pop up at any time. The narrator is only protected if he can reach Lettie and hold her hand.

Perpetual discomfort. Conceal the monster, attack randomly, never let the audience settle: Ursula can be anywhere at any time, including inside the narrator himself. Ursula has won over the narrator’s sister and father and even drives his father to attack the narrator. She can read the narrator’s thoughts and any escape plan he may conceive.

Sadomasochistic flip-flop. Let the reader experience the power of the monster while empathizing with the victims: The audience experiences Ursula Monkton’s terror as the hunger birds consume her. After she is eaten, she appears to the narrator and laments that her existence inside the hunger birds is darkness and torment.

Keep the monster off-screen for as long as possible: Ursula Monkton is often not in narrator’s view. This makes it scarier because the reader can never be certain when she will suddenly appear. Also, the hunger birds do not come until the final scenes of the story. At first, the reader thinks they have come to save the day. But, they turn out to be the more threatening monster.

Have the audience experience the horrific at a remove: This convention is not used. The narrator directly observes the dead opal miner, the dead fish, and Ursula Monkton consumed by the hunger birds.

Obligatory Scenes

An inciting attack by a monster. A single non-heroic protagonist is thrown out of stasis, forced to pursue a conscious object of desire: saving their own life. There are, in effect, two monsters. The first is an evil spirit that starts hurting people in the neighborhood by giving them what they want, money. When the narrator and Lettie attempt to bind and contain the spirit, it enters the narrator in the form of a worm, and is thus transported into the narrator’s home. The evil spirit then shifts to the form of a physically attractive woman, called Ursula Monkton. Ursula torments the narrator and drives the narrator’s father to attempt to kill him. The stronger monsters are the hunger birds. They kill Ursula but then turn their murderous focus on the narrator.

Speech in Praise of the Monster: Ursula Monkton repeatedly praises herself by saying she is only trying to make people happy by giving them what they want. The hunger birds also praise themselves, saying they perform their function (ridding the world of varmints) and are necessary. Lettie acknowledges that the hunger birds can stop Ursula from going away and bothering others. Both monsters boast of their strength and longevity, arguing that it is futile to resist them.

Protagonist at the mercy of the monster: During a long dark night of the soul, the narrator realizes that the hunger birds are going to destroy the world and everyone in it. He decides he would rather die than let that happen. He sacrifices himself to stop the hunger birds. Lettie intervenes and sacrifices herself to save the narrator.

The protagonist becomes the final victim after a series of “kill-off” scenes of minor characters. First the opal miner dies, then the narrator nearly chokes on a coin, and a fish dies from swallowing a coin. The hunger birds kill Ursula Monkton. Last, the climactic event is the hunger birds’ mortal attack on the narrator.

False Ending: When the hunger birds consume Ursula Monkton, the audience thinks the narrator will be safe. But, when the powerful hunger birds refuse to leave without eating the bit of Ursula that is left in the narrator’s heart, the larger threat emerges.

Learn more about obligatory scenes and conventions.

3. What is the point of view and narrative device?

The point of view is first person through the eyes of the narrator. The narrative device is a grown man recalling terrifying experience that happened when he was seven years old. His neighbors, magical spirits who appear (mostly) as human women, saved him from being killed by dark spirits. After saving him, they blurred his memory.

Learn more about point of view.

4. What are the objects of desire?

External/Conscious—The narrator wants to survive and make the monsters go away.

Internal/Sub-Conscious—The narrator must accept that people, including adults, are never as they appear.

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5. What is the controlling idea / theme?

Life and goodness are preserved when people, including adults, continuously fight to keep evil from consuming our hearts and making us behave like monsters.

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6. What is the beginning hook, middle build and ending payoff?

Beginning Hook: When the narrator’s family’s tenant commits suicide because he gambled away his friends’ money, an evil spirit enters the narrator’s neighborhood. The narrator and his friend, Lettie, attempt to bind the spirit, but when the narrator momentarily releases Lettie’s hand, the spirit enters the narrator as a worm through a cut in the narrator’s foot. The narrator must decide whether to ask for help, and risk confronting his fear of adults, or remove the worm himself. He decides to remove the worm himself, but does cannot remove all of it. Part of the worm/evil spirit remains inside the narrator.

Middle Build: The evil spirit takes human form as pretty but torturous babysitter, Ursula Monkton. Ursula alienates the narrator from his family and imprisons him in his home. After Ursula drives the narrator’s father to attempt to kill the narrator, the narrator must decide whether to attempt escape as a last desperate attempt to get help and risk capture and eternal torture by Ursula. The narrator escapes and gets help from Lettie. Lettie summons the hunger birds.

Ending Payoff: The powerful hunger birds eat Ursula but then say they must also eat the narrator’s heart because it contains the remaining bit of the evil spirit that was Ursula. Evil spirits come to trick or scare the narrator out where the hunger birds can eat him, but the narrator is not lured. When the hunger birds start eating away the literal fabric of the world.

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