A Monster Calls And Jim Henson s Labyrinth - 1128 Words

Patrick Ness s A Monster Calls and Jim Henson s Labyrinth follows a protagonist and his/her struggle with a monster. In A Monster Calls Connor, the protagonist of the book, finds his monster to take the shape of cancer in his dying mother. In Labyrinth Sarah, the protagonist of the movie, has her monster take the shape of a goblin king. During the protagonists journey they learn to accept a truth about life. In A Monster Calls and Labyrinth, Ness and Henson use their protagonist to illustrate how denial, isolation, and family dysfunction affect relationships and maturity. Firstly, throughout the stories, Sarah and Conner are in denial about an aspect in their life. Sarah is in denial over the fact that she has grown up and†¦show more content†¦Conner suffers because he has to live with the fact that his mother is dying and will die sometime soon. Another way he suffers is from being isolated from the other students in his class. His suffering is shown in this w hen the book refers to him as an invisible man and how he was visible just ignored by everyone to the point no one noticed him (Ness). Sarah also experiences isolation; however it is different because she is isolated by being one of the few humans in her story. In addition, because the protagonists were suffering they had to adopt coping mechanisms to deal with their problems. Sara copes with her suffering by constantly imagining herself in a Cinderella fantasy (Miller). The constant image of a prince and princess in a perfect world does help Sarah cope; however it also disables her from maturing in the real world. Conner s coping mechanism takes shape as the Yew Tree that visits him at night to tell him tales that will help him accept his mother s death. Conner s coping mechanism is extremely effective at helping him deal with his suffering. The protagonists were given these coping mechanisms to allow the characters to evolve throughout the story which creates a more dynamic sto ry. Further, the suffering of both protagonists provides the basis of the personality as well as the actions of the protagonists. Because Sarah was suffering from losing a mom and then