The questions, discussion topics, and author information that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of The Golden Compass .
Daemons are one of the most striking, charming, and powerful images in The Golden Compass .
These spirit-creatures, which seem like physical representations of the human soul, can change form to reflect the myriad of emotional states their humans go through as children. But in adulthood, each daemon settles into the animal form that best reflects the inner nature of its human counterpart. It is in this unusual and imaginative creation that Pullman turns his sharpest mirror back onto his readers, helping us to imagine our own souls as precious, living extensions of ourselves that we can love, challenge, or even betray. This Dust does not gather in the unswept corners of Jordan College, Lyra's Oxford home. Pantalaimon-finds her life inextricably entangled with the exploration of Dust.