“Northern Lights” is a fantasy novel, first in the Trilogy “His Dark Materials”, by Phillip Pullman, which is about a young curious and adventurous little girl with a smart daemon named Pantalaimon. She loves to hang out and do dangerous things with her peers in Jordan College. She is a young girl who wants to discover the mysteries about the other worlds that are visible through the northern lights. The novel deals with a number of issues: Lyra, the main character, wants to discover who her parents are, what “Dust” is and where her best friend Roger is.
The theme of courage is central to the novel as Lyra is constantly facing difficult situations throughout the novel. Facing Mrs Coulter and having the courage of running away from her, also for having the courage for going up North with all the men to rescue Lord Asriel and save her best friend Roger. She has a lot of courage by facing the truth about her parents and who they were.
My first example of courage is in Chapter 5 when Pantalaimon and Lyra are discussing whether to escape Mrs Coulter and Pantalaimon says, “I'll fight him this time, Pantalaimon said boldly. I can change and he can't! I’ll change so quickly he won’t be able to keep hold. This time I’ll win, you’ll see.” This quote shows the courage that Pantalaimon has when he says that he will fight Mrs Coulter’s daemon and that he will defeat him so that they can escape without Mrs Coulter knowing. The Language Technique in this quote is that Pantalaimon has a determined tone in his voice and that he is focused to defeat Mrs Coulter’s daemon so they can escape without Mrs Coulter knowing. Courage is very important for Lyra because throughout the novel she comes across a lot of bad people and has to have the courage to stand up to them and take them on just like Pantalaimon did when he fights Mrs Coulter’s daemon and successfully defeating him.
My second example of the theme courage is also in Chapter 5 Lyra is at the cocktail party and she says to Pantalaimon “She's never going north! She's going to keep us here forever! When are we going to run away?.” This quote shows the courage that they will run away from Mrs Coulter and escape her
