The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Created by Napatsorn Treesap In Neil Gaiman’s famous novel, the Graveyard Book, the heartwarming story to show the beautiful things of growing up through the main characters in the story. Nobody Owens, the only survivor of the family killed by the man named Jack, crawled out of the house to the graveyard before he was going to be killed. His mother’s spirit asked Mr. and Mrs. Owens, the ghosts in the graveyard, to
protect her son. Mr. and Mrs. Owen decided to adopt the baby, and they gave Silas to be his guardian. They called the baby, Nobody Owens. He was given the freedom of the graveyard, and Bod is the only living that
lives there since he was a toddler. Could Bod discover the truth about his family? Will he know about Jack? Let’s find out together in the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The book that is full of heartwarming stories of growing up.
The delightful story about growing up had been told through the main characters of the book. Firstly, Nobody Owens. The book introduced Bod as a toddler who crawled out of the house to the graveyard. Then, he was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Owens, and that is the beginning of the story. Bod was given the freedom of the graveyard, and that is the reason he could go anywhere in the graveyard except the outside. Bod was raised in the graveyard. He learned how to read, write, and learn how to talk there. After Bod learned how to talk he always asked why he could not go outside; for instance, “Bod was a quiet child, [...], He learned how to talk, [...], he would pester the graveyard folk with question, ‘why amn’t I allowed out of the graveyard?’,” and Silas said that, [...], ‘Outside would not be safe for you.’” Actually, Silas concerns that if Bod went out of the graveyard, Jack would find him. In my opinion, Jack is the metaphor of the outside world, and Bod is the metaphor of the children. Mostly, parents have to take care of the children carefully because they are still innocent due to the lack of the experience.
Children do not know what is right or wrong, and they do not know how dangerous the world is. Moreover, when Silas decided to tell Bod the truth about Bod’s family because he thinks that Bod grows up enough to know the truth. In
my perspective, this could reflect in reality that when you are growing up, you tend to understand something more than when you’re children. Some issues that are complex might be understood when you’re older.
Secondly, Scarlett Amber Perkins. She is introduced in chapter two as Bod’s new friend. Scarlett thinks that Bod is her imaginary friend. Later, she moved to another town, and they did not see each other until they were growing up. Scarlett took the wrong bus, and it led her to the graveyard. She went there unexpectedly, and when she saw the graveyard, she thought about Bod.
This is like our lives. We all have our childhood friends, but as the time has passed, we all grow up. When we grow up, we have our own dreams, we have our own path to take. During the journey, we may meet other people, face new experiences, but there must be one thing that reminds us about our past, or our childhood friends.
Thirdly, Silas is also one of the characters that show about self-growing up. There is one time that Silas said “I have not always done the right thing. When I was younger...I did worse things than Jack. Worse than any of them. I was the monster, then, Bod, and worse than any monster.” This shows that some people might do or say something wrong to other people, but those could learn to be better from their past actions. The people that seem to be like angels do not mean they are good since when they were born. We all have mistakes, and that is the nature of life. To summarize, growing up is portrayed by the main characters as the theme of the book. After using reader response theory1, it helps me
to understand the contemporary aspect which is a social issue in a family. The social issue in family has been shown throughout the story.
Firstly, when Bod could not go outside of the graveyard, he asked everyone after he learned how to talk. Silas just only told him that it is not safe, but did not provide other reasons more than that. This could reflect on some families that parents tell their children not to do some-
thing, but do not provide any reasons. Sometimes, when some children ask their parents about the reasons, the thing that they get back is the censure. Thus, this could reflect the reality of social issue in the family.
1 Reader Response Theory is the theory for the analysis which depends on the relationship between the readers and the text. The analysis constructs through the transaction between the readers and the text within the context (Mart, 2019).
I would say this work is worth reading because it takes the readers to the journey with Nobody Owens. The story that is full of adventure and mystery. The readers do not get only the entertainment, humour, or lesson learned, but they also get the touching story including friendship and family. I would rate this book four out of five stars, for there might be some minor detail about Jack, the murderer, that should provide more. If you want to find a book for yourself or your children, I recommend this one for you.
4/5