At the time of his birth, Gaiman was the eldest of three children. His family relocated to Sussex when he was five years old, and there he grew up in the house that would later serve as the basis for the main character’s home in The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
Because his father worked as a public relations official for the local Scientologist centre, one of Gaiman’s elementary school principals made him withdraw from school when he was seven years old because of the family’s religious association with Scientology. Gaiman, like the narrator, read voraciously as a child and into adulthood.
Background on the Times When the Ocean Was at the End of the Lane Was Written
Though the story itself isn’t autobiographical, Gaiman has stated that the narrator is a fairly accurate picture of Gaiman as a seven-year-old. The narrator, a young man in the late 1960s, doesn’t comment on current events, but he does talk about the SMASH! comic book series and similar superhero television shows, as well as the show Mission: Impossible (which inspired the 1996 film).
Gaiman references to the suburbanization of living but not working in the 20th century and the urbanisation of formerly rural places in his description of the lane’s metamorphosis. The novel’s adult narrator remarks in the novel’s frame tale that the lane has been developed with numerous identical houses and that its residents all commute to nearby cities for employment.
Similar Books to “The Ocean at the End of the Lane”
Besides The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman’s previous works Stardust and The Graveyard Book also have female Hempstock characters. Ocean is most like The Graveyard Book and Coraline, two of Gaiman’s earlier works, in that all three feature youthful protagonists but tackle complex topics that make them accessible to adults.
The works of Kate DiCamillo, such as The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Tale of Desperaux, and J.K. Rowling, especially the Harry Potter series, also have this kind of widespread popularity. The narrator alludes to both Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.
Summary of “The Ocean in the Lane”3
- The Ocean in the Back of the Store
- Time Period: 2012 Location: Florida and Texas
- Publication Year: 2013 Literary Genre: Modern
- Categories: Fantasy and Magical Realism
- Environment: a country drive and the farmland around it in Surrey, England
In the climactic scene, Lettie gives her life to feed the starving birds and save the narrator. - Ursula Monkton, also known as Skarthatch of the Keep, and the Hunger Birds are the main antagonists.
- First-Person Perspective
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is worth double points.
A Young Author’s Self-Portrait In many ways, the narrator of Ocean is not dissimilar to Gaiman as a little child. Some of the narrator’s favourite books are also some of Gaiman’s, like Alice in Wonderland and The Chronicles of Narnia, and the adult Gaiman has even published a photo of himself climbing a drainpipe.
Kittens Typing on a Computer Keyboard. In light of Gaiman’s own feline affections, the narrator’s affinity for felines should come as no surprise. Several of his cats’ antics have been chronicled on his blog, although he has been known to make snide remarks at public speaking engagements, implying that his cats have done nothing for him except insert commas where they don’t belong.