Food takes a significant role as a motif throughout Coraline. It is used to communicate the theme of not always getting what you want. In the beginning, food is used to communicate Coraline’s dissatisfaction with her life. When Coraline is served her father’s leek and potato stew, she exclaims in disgust that he’s “made a recipe again” (7). She then goes to the freezer and gets “some microwave chips and a microwave mini-pizza” (8) instead. Coraline’s rejection of the food her parents provide shows how she is unsatisfied with what is given to her.

In the other world, food is one of the other mother’s ways of enticing Coraline. When Coraline first arrives, she is served “the best chicken that Coraline had ever eaten” (27), which Coraline compares to her mother’s pre-packaged and frozen chicken and her father’s strangely prepared chicken. After returning to her own world and realizing her parents are missing, Coraline makes the decision not to eat the food in the other world again. She instead loads her dressing gown with apples to get her through her trip. Upon returning, Coraline rejects the other father’s offer of a snack and eats her apple “with relish and an enthusiasm that she did not feel” (59), which causes the other father to look disappointed.