The Ocean at the End of the Lane

As a young boy, the narrator briefly moved back and forth between his own home and the magical Hempstock family. He loves his parents but chafes at their inability to understand him; he loves the Hempstocks, who care for him and understand him vastly better than he does himself, but knows he can’t live in their world. His struggle speaks to the stresses of bright children who feel caught between the limits of their world and the wonders of their imagination.

The boy’s parents are decent people with good jobs, and support their son as he pursues books and quieter hobbies, but they don’t quite understand him or the loneliness he feels as an outsider among other children. To his father, the boy is a disappointment: “He did not ask for a child with a book, off in its own world. He wanted a son who did what he had done: swam and boxed and played rugby, and drove cars at speed with abandon and joy” (234). Meanwhile, his mother must work, and she’s generally too busy to give him the attention he needs. The boy’s sister dislikes him and takes every opportunity to bad-mouth him to their parents. Finally, his father falls under Ursula’s sway and nearly kills the boy for refusing to cooperate with the new nanny.