“The Ocean at the End of the Road” by Neil Gaiman tells the story of a man who returns to his childhood home to witness funerals. He is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he met a girl named Lettie Hempstock. At first it seems like he's having trouble remembering his past, but sitting by the pond behind the Hempstock farm; a pond that Lettie claimed was an ocean, her memory is triggered and her seemingly forgotten past returns. As the narrator recounts his past, the reader embarks on a journey filled with "magic" and illusion that seems straight out of a child's imagination. “The Ocean at the End of the Road” focuses on the imagination and creativity of a child (the narrator) facing difficult situations in his life, but what exactly triggers the narrator's wild imagination and what is he trying to avoid? The ocean at the end of the road” contrasts the point of view of a child with that of an adult. What the narrator sees and sometimes considers real is often in conflict with the world adults see and perceive. The narrator's parents represent the adult point of view where everything is exactly as it seems, where no other creatures in the world exist. There is no mystery, no illusion, things simply are what they are, whether good or bad. Gaiman writes: “Adult stories never made sense and took so long to get going. They made me feel like there were secrets... Why didn't adults want to know more about Narnia, about secret islands, smugglers and dangerous fairies? (Gaiman 71-72); Gaiman writes this to highlight the difference between a child's mindset and that of an adult, a child is interested in wild and mythical creatures, while adults are concerned with what is real, in the middle paper......the ath of a stranger at such a young age, a mother who works all the time and is not there, and an abusive father who almost drowns him and a mean nanny who threatens at every turn and seeks to tear his family apart by having an affair with the narrator's father. “The Ocean at the End of the Road” seems to show how a child's imagination can seep into their real world and, in some way, help them. Life, for lack of a better word, sucks, it really does, and when you can create a “magical world” to escape into, everyday life becomes much more bearable. As people age and reach adulthood, this becomes difficult to achieve. There is no magic, no illusion, no mystery in life when you are older, you only see things as they seem to be and nothing else. Gaiman forces the reader to recognize the power we once held as children with creativity, imagination, and belief in magic..