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Comparing Neil Gaiman And The Wolves In The Walls

Decent Essays

Neil Gaiman has a unique style of writing that is unlike any other writer of today. He is able to create fantastical, eerie stories seems painfully real and largely humorous. However, the most interesting quality about Gaiman and his writings is not his uniqueness, but his ability to use whatever medium of print to its fullest. Whether it be the novel with The Graveyard Book, the children’s book with The Wolves in the Walls, or the graphic novel with The Sandman: Dream Country, Neil Gaiman expertly uses the pages and text to be something quite meaningful to the readers. The works themselves are distinctively Gaiman in tone and style, containing elements that continue to make him a popular modern writer. These three works of Neil Gaiman explore …show more content…

While the pieces aimed at the younger audiences tend to lean to the more to a lighter tone in comparison to The Sandman, they all have a distinct undertone of dark eeriness. This is even evident in the illustration present in each work. Dave McKean’s art in The Graveyard Book is understated in comparison to the other works, but add just enough to create a tone that conveyed Gaiman’s words. Dave McKean’s style in The Wolves in the Walls create a very unique presentation for Gaiman’s children’s book that recreates the fantasy of a child’s mind and also that of which in inherent in Neil Gaiman’s works. In The Sandman: Dream Country, several artists contributed to the piece in order to expertly create an aesthetic reminiscent of a dream. All of the artwork in each book creates a dreamlike atmosphere and contribute to the characteristically creepy tone. Narratively, all of the books begin with a brooding mystery. The Graveyard Book opens with a grim murder shrouded in secrecy. The Wolves in the Walls starts with a girl going to sleep hearing terrifying noises from within the walls of her home. The Sandman: Dream Country begins with covert exchange of an ancient good for an immortal muse. These events, backed up with the truly scary visuals by the works’ illustrators, are the way that the books begin. This unsettling tone is present throughout each work and is only alleviated by the …show more content…

The Graveyard Book’s conclusion hinged on Bod’s ability to think outside the box and defeat evil. The Wolves in the Walls was essentially a celebration of childhood imagination. The Sandman: Dream Country depicts dreams as the very thing that makes us humans different from the animal kingdom. Good versus evil is a theme in all these works, even if somewhat heavy-handed at times. There is Bod, Scarlett, and the graveyard versus the Jacks of All Trade. Then, there is the family versus the wolves. And then, there is Dream versus the evils within particular human beings. Good versus evil is a pretty clear theme in all of the works, in which good always prevails. A much smaller theme in these works is that of commitment. It is present in The Graveyard Book when whole graveyard commits to raising Bod as a community. It is present in The Wolves in the Walls when the family as a whole returns to their home to live and the wolves invaded. It is even present in The Sandman: Dream Country’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” when William Shakespeare honors his promise to Dream about writing a play for him. Lastly, one of the major themes that these works share is that everything must end. In end of The Graveyard Book, Bod must leave his family and home to start his next journey in life. The children’s book The Wolves in the Walls was much less bleak with this theme, softening it by making events more cyclical in

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