The Ocean at the End of the Lane: MYTH

The story begins as the narrator visits his childhood home for the first time since he left it. While visiting what is left of the property begins to have strange memories of when he was seven and still living there. His family, in order to pay the rent, takes in boarders. One of these boarders, who is a miner, kills the narrator’s kitten by accident and later commit’s suicide in their family car. Due to this event and ancient evil is unleashed on the narrator in the form of a woman named Ursula through a wormhole in the narrator’s foot. Ursula soon wins over his whole family, and begins having a relationship with his father. With the help of Lettie Hempstock and her family the narrator is eventually able to overcome this evil, while nearly being killed in the process. Lettie saves him, almost dying herself. The narrator remembers this while speaking to the Hempstock family. They tell him it is not the first time that he has been to the property and that Lettie is resting until she is ready to come back into the world. They tell him that he returns to the property to see her. He understands this briefly but then slowly forgets. He tells the Hempstock’s to say hi to Lettie when she gets back from Australia and leaves


Myth is may not be reinvented in the novel, but perhaps reintegrated. Myth is this novel has been made relevant to the contemporary world. This myth might not be as pragmatic as some myths but it serves as far more heartening. The definition of myth is, “A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.” This tale contains all of that. It tells the history of a fight between good and evil and the past of the Hempstocks who happen to be supernatural. It also explains how evil is born into the world, such as in the suicide with Ursula, and how it is overcome. In relating it to today’s world I would say it is interestingly told from the perspective of a grown man looking back at himself from his perspective of being seven.