There is a saying that goes "The eyes are the windows to the soul".
So, not only is sewing buttons in place of people's eyes just plain creepy & disturbing on a physical level, it also has a deeper meaning because it is referring to the loss of one's soul and individuality... The very thing the Other Mother/Bedlam Witch did to the Ghost Children.
Did anyone else catch this clever use of metaphor?
I did, in the country where I come from originally we use to say " they eyes are the mirrow of your soul" which is more or less the same, you are right I thought the botton eyes it was reffered to the loss of the soul.
shareIt is very good you picked up on this fact because it will lead you to realizing what this movie really stood for.
The industry dont give a *beep* about you, but it couldn't make a dime without you
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That's a pretty good interpretation.
Another might be that the button eyes represent dolls, and are therefore a metaphor for childhood fantasy. I've only read the book and have yet to see the film, but wasn't the Other World constructed around Coraline's fantasies of a perfect childhood? By agreeing to have buttons sewn into her eyes, she would have been accepting the fantasy as real and trapping herself there.
And in the book, she finally traps the Other Mother's severed hand by staging a tea party with her dolls (I don't know if this is what happens in the film). In that sense, the button eyes could serve as a clue that the Other World isn't real, and shouldn't be trusted. In fact, you could conclude that using a childhood game as a trap was Coraline's way of turning the tables on the Other Mother, since her whole world was an elaborate game that hid a deadly trap.
Anyway, Gaiman once said he didn't know where he got the idea of the button eyes from, and didn't think people would want to know (or something like that). So it's wide open to debate.
It's said explicitly in the film that when the 'other mother' sewed the eyes on she stole the life from the child, which is another way of saying the soul. So yes it was apparent that button eyes = dead in all senses of the word.
I'm a fountain of bloodshare
In the shape of a girl
I think the buttons also represent death, we close our eyes when we sleep, which is like a little death, and there's an ancient custom of putting pennies on the eyes of the dead which is what the button eyes made me think of immediately.
shareExactly! Let me try to add a bit more and sorry if my point doesn't come across.
Although I feel like it is clearer in the novel, when the Other Mother sews buttons onto children's eyes it symbolizes how one can lose their innocence and creativity, from a parent that gives in too much or spoils a child. This is represented with the Other Mother spoiling Coraline, such as trying to trick Coraline into eating the desirable, fattening food that her birth mother doesn't cook. When a parent gives in to a child, the child becomes too reliable on the parent and loses responsibility (responsibility is something that Coraline's birth parents would promote). A parent that spoils a child will also spoil their creativity by buying them all the toys, such as video games, that will take away their creativity.
But why would the author, Gaiman, include such themes about the consequences of spoiling a kid?
...well has anyone read about Gaiman's personal life? I believe he was going through a divorce at the time he was creating Coraline's story and he would tell it to his children at bedtime. I believe the Other Mother may represent his ex-wife, since it is odd he would choose her to be the main villain in the story. The Other Father tries to even help Coraline at times, but the Other Mother has more control over him. I am almost sure, as this happens in many families going through a divorce, that the mother was trying to spoil the children (much like the Other Mother) into choosing her as the favorite, reliable parent.
Anyways, there are so many possible meanings and interpretations in Coraline that anything could be true! That's why I love it so much. On a really random note, I remember someone using this foundation to claim that there is an anti-religious theme in the book as well, which has to do with the whole blindness theme. Who knows?!
Well it became more fattening. The other mother offered real food at first. Plus her parents didn't really cook but, just literally threw together whatever they could find. She longed for something more traditional.
share...there's an ancient custom of putting pennies on the eyes of the dead which is what the button eyes made me think of immediately.
Silver Dollars Actually. Maybe pennies in some cases.
shareBleh, all of these allegories and metaphors. I didn't overthink the button eyes... it just seemed like a dramatic element to show how crazy that lady was and gave Coraline something to do in finding their eyes.
There's a potential contradiction in saying the eyes are window to the soul, and the buttons mean one is without a soul. The other mother was evil, not soulless. The saying means we can see someone's good or evil by looking at the eyes. Replacing the eyes would void that. So the buttons would have no window value anymore.
I don't know what they mean. They're from the book so the author didn't know that the characters would one day be actual dolls.
It's just a sort of spooky-ism, like skeletons as ghosts, or souls, or whatever. They may be symbols of death, but they are not ghosts.
Button eyes seems to imply that the other world is a basic falsehood, as are button eyes, which cannot see, but are just symbols of eyes.
I don't really feel certain about any interpretation at this point.
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The story is king.