. . .

It is a popular opinion of the movie audience that the world behind the little door is not merely a fantasy, this is because we want to sympathize with Coraline; throughout the movie, characters fail to actively listen to her and undermine her feelings; she is repeatedly told by others that her experiences are "just dreams."

I fell victim to this narrative, and if I am being honest, I still like to believe the other world is not a fictional one. Still, this reflection allowed me to open my eyes and realize, I know exactly what my research topic should be...

The Best of Two Worlds

As suggested by a few speakers who presented at the UROP/Humanities Core Research Symposium, the easiest way to get this research paper done is to write about something that I am naturally interested in. I have established Coraline as the main subject of my research, but what other topic intrigues me?*

In the most recent Humanities Core lecture I attended, Professor Roberg discussed the different ways one can approach a research paper; they helped me realize that the humanistic approach is very broad and allows for the incorporation or discussion of other subjects outside of those in Humanities. 

So the question* became easy to answer; I thought some more about the feature of the two parallel worlds in the film and realized, this idea works almost perfectly with a certain sub-topic of psychology, psychoanalysis. To elaborate, I am a (passionate) psychology major and I really loved chapters or units in my classes that covered psychoanalysis. 

It can be easily argued that the two parallel worlds exist as a result of Coraline's psyche; she is disappointed in her reality and manifests this ideal world, a paracosm, either through her imagination or dreams. I got excited at this topic and more specifically, all the things I could talk about including: the conscious versus subconscious, Freudian theory, psychology of dreams, etc.