Throughout The
Graveyard Book, Gaiman places a lot of emphasis on the difference between
those who are motivated by empathy and those who are motivated by
self-interest. In “The Witch’s Headstone,” the reader first sees Bod’s empathy
when he sets out to find a headstone for his witch friend, Liza. When Liza
tells Bod she doesn’t have a headstone, Bod “wanted to hug her. And then it
came to him…He would find Liza Hempstock a headstone with her name upon it. He
would make her smile” (113). He nearly gets himself killed trying to find the
headstone, and puts himself in danger of being found by the man Jack, but his
empathy for Liza earns him something; Liza is now his friend and his protector.
She gets him out of a lot of sticky situations and becomes one of Bod’s good
friends in the graveyard. In “Nobody Owens’ School Days,” Bod once again risks
making himself visible to the man Jack by speaking out against the bullies at
his school. He tells one of his classmates who has been forced to give his
money to Nick and Mo to “’tell them that you think the police and school
authorities could be a lot more interested in a couple of kids who are getting
younger kids to steal for them” (185) and to stop giving them his money. Doing
this gets Bod into a lot of trouble, but ultimately he prevails over the
bullies, even though it meant he had to stop going to school. In the end, Bod
has a happy ending.
Those
characters who are motivated only by self-interest are not given a happy ending
by Gaiman. The Jacks of All Trades are a prime example. Jack Frost in
particular shows a lot of self-interest throughout the book. After he realizes
that all the remaining Jacks except for him have been defeated, he thinks, “Good…There’s always room at the top. The
man Jack’s own rise through the Order had slowed and stopped after he had
failed to kill all the Dorian family…now, soon, everything would change” (275).
Jack is motivated by self-interest and the thought of gaining power and being
the last Jack remaining. In the end, however, the man Jack meets his demise
when the Sleer kills him. The Jacks of All Trades do experience a fair amount
of success, since their group prevails for a few thousand years. However,
although their order “goes back before Babylon” (278), they are all killed by
the good guys slowly but surely, until they are finally defeated by Bod, Silas,
and Miss Lupescu at the end of the book. The self-interested, the bad guys,
fall, while Bod, the empathetic, gets a happy ending. Self-interest is defeated
by empathy.
I agree with what Emma said about Gaiman’s distinction between those who show empathy and those motivated by self-interest. He poses a clear difference between what makes people either good or bad. The only exception is Liza. Liza is originally portrayed in a negative light because she’s a witch. Miss Borrows described the witches buried as not “‘[their] sort of people’” and said it “‘would not be advisable’” for Bod to talk to her or go to that part of the Graveyard (106). However, even though Liza is a witch she helps Bod as Emma mentioned and saves him. She proves that not all people thought of as bad in the Graveyard really were, and that witches are not necessarily bad.
ReplyDeleteSilas also shows that bad people can become good. Silas tells Bod he “‘[has] not always done the right thing… [he] was the monster then’” (303). However, he also tells Bod that “‘people can change’” (303). Although self-interest and empathy define the characters as good or bad, Gaiman shows that people who were once bad or seen as bad can have good hearts and become good people. He shows that not it is not a black and white situation, the same way Silas is neither alive nor dead.
While I agree that empathy is one of the most important values of The Graveyard Book, not all characters who behave selflessly are rewarded in the end. When Bod confronts bullies he often faces consequences even when he and the readers believe he did the right thing. After scaring Mo and Nick out of stealing from the eleven year olds, Bod blows his cover and can no longer safely attend school. When Bod thanks Silas for saving him, Silas says, “You weren’t selfish…It’s just harder out there in the world of the living, and we cannot protect you out there as easily” (208).
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the book, after Bod and the dead people defeat the Jacks, Silas has to erase Scarlett’s memory. Even though Bod saved her, she is afraid of him. When Bod asks, “That girl…Scarlett. Why was she so scared of me, Silas?” (291) Silas does not answer, because he knows Bod would be hurt, and not understand. Even so, Bod ends up losing a friend even after saving her from Jack Frost, who was masquerading as a lonely old bachelor.
In the end, it is not only Bod who suffers consequences from putting others first. Miss Lupescu ends up dying when she and Silas destroy the Jacks on their journey. When Bod asks how she died, Silas says, “Bravely…In battle. Protecting others” (289). This is perhaps not a bad way to die, but the situation in The Graveyard Book is more complicated than all the characters who show empathy getting a happy ending.