Log #2

Book: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Author: Neil Gaiman

        What the boy had encountered was so extremely dangerous and horrible that I was nervous for him. In his dream, he was chased and put something in his throat by the waxwork of his grandfather. Strangely, there was really a coin stuck in this throat when he woke up. Logically speaking, if someone had put it into his mouth, he would have woken up. After going downstairs, his little sister stared at him and blamed him for throwing coins at her and her friends, but he didn’t.

Confused of series of odds, he went to ask for Lettie’s help, with the coin in his pocket. Lettie considered that someone tried to give people money, but in bad ways, making things to be more complex. For example, there was a couple shouting at each other when the boy and Lettie went pass by the farm. They argued because they have been money problems. Last night, the husband dreamed his wife did bad things in order to earn money. The next day, he looked in her hand bag and found lots of folded-up ten-shilling notes, but the wife didn’t know where these notes came from actually. The husband didn’t buy it, anyway. There is a sentence the boy said, “All the fighting and the dreams. It’s about money, isn’t it?” this saying makes me stop reading and think of it for a while. It really makes sense even in our own lives. We human often dream of being the rich, and fight against with other even family or friends, just for money. This plot lets me to experience again how vicious people’s minds are, and how crazy the greed drives people into.

        Few days later, the boy’s mom found a job and there was a housekeeper, Ursula Monkton, took charge of looking after him and his sister. However, in the boy’s sight, she is not a normal housekeeper but a monster, a monster which want to damage his family. This part, depicting his thrilling escape from home, also attracted me a lot. So much as he hurt himself on the way to Hempstock’s farm, he still kept the strong willing. It is quite a valuable sprit for a 7-year-old child. If I were that boy, I might have shrunk back instead of doing like that boy.

How on earth would the boy and Lettie deal with the whole odds? I was looking forwards to the following story!