The Golden Compass

“Yes; I can’t prevent it” (65), says the Master in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, Book 1 of The Dark Materials trilogy. This is a quote that caught me off-guard; thinking that it is sort of a strange thing to say. He cannot prevent what? Who is this guy? What is his role in all of this business about Dust, Gobblers, and Mrs. Coulter? The quote is also a point in the novel where I really start to question who is “good” and who is “bad,” an obvious theme throughout the story. It made me want to read more.

Another aspect of the book that really pulled me in is the fact that Pullman’s world seems like a world that could exist: the story is set in London and other areas of England. Even though the time period is set in the past (I think? I’m basing this off the fact that Lord Asriel almost gets poisoned by a bottle of 1898 wine.), I could imagine much of the characters’ experiences happening today and in the future. (Hopefully there will always be colleges and gypsies, right?)

Of course, there are certain fantastical elements that tell the reader that the world doesn’t literally exist. For example, each character has a daemon, which seems to be a representation of one’s soul or conscience, as its behavior reflects the character’s current emotions and thoughts. This concept confused me for the first chapter or so; I wasn’t sure who Pantalaimon was. I thought he was a pet, or simply a friend of Lyra’s. Even though daemons aren’t a part of our world, the metaphor makes perfect sense. We all have our inner voice; Pullman just makes it clear how integral that inner voice is to an individual’s intentions and actions.

The intriguing characters also drew me into the story. Unlike the folklore that we read a few weeks ago, it is not at first clear to the reader who is good and who isn’t. From the opening chapter, it seems that Master is not to be trusted, and Lord Asriel is, since Master tries to poison Lord Asriel. However, both Master’s and Lord Asriel’s roles are slowly revealed. Lyra and the reader realize that Master is craftily doing his best to protect Lyra without telling her so much to confuse or frighten her. Lord Asriel ends up sacrificing a child to pursue his own experiments at the end, leading us to feel just as betrayed as Lyra feels. A side thought I had while contemplating characters were their names. I felt that a character’s name reflected class: Lyra, Lord Asriel, Lord Boreal, and Mrs. Marisa Coulter (sounds a lot like “culture”, does it not?) all “sound” lofty and noble; whereas the more “common” characters have names such as Billy, Tony, and Roger. It’s a common technique, but felt that it was especially appropriate for this book.

Finally, I became excited about the simple passages that explained what the alethiometer was used for, because they would be helpful in teaching students the idea of symbol. For example, the passage on p. 112 reads, “they’re symbols, and each one stands for a whole series of things. Take the anchor, there. The first meaning of that is hope, because hope holds you fast like an anchor so you don’t give way. The second meaning is steadfastness. The third meaning is snag, or prevention. The fourth meaning is the sea. And so on, down to ten, twelve, maybe a never-ending series of meanings.” Thank you, Philip Pullman, for providing this straightforward example of how many ideas an object can represent!