What does it mean in Hugo cabret when it says but another story begins because stories lead to other stories and this one leads all the way to the moon?

Answer 1

"But another story begins because stories lead to other stories and this one leads all the way to the moon."

Well, it would make some sense if you read and comprehended the whole book (which is awesome, I still remember reading it like 500 times in 5th grade). Trying to put this into the best wording I can, It says: "all stories lead to other stories, and this one will bring you all the way to the truth behind Meiles"

so "all stories lead to other stories" like, Hugo, he had a story, and it intertwined with the store owner of that toy shop in the train station. His story lead to finding out the truth about Meiles and recovering many films of his. But if you think about it, have you ever read a story and wonder 'I wonder what happens to this character later' or 'I want to know the back story on them'. Kind of like that?

The part that says "and this one leads us all the way to the moon." is talking about a movie that Melies made called "a man in the moon." It is a real movie, and it is one of his most famous. It is a story to Melies because it was one of his films, but he had to burn his sets and melt his film down, so he thought that none of them survived and that killed him. The movies were his life. When he was younger he built an automaton, or a robot of sorts that drew a picture. Hugo's dad found it and brought it home for Hugo and him to fix up. Hugo thinks that is holds a special message from his father and works hard at fixing it after his parents die and he is forced to live with his uncle in the walls of the train station.

When he finally fixes the automaton, it draws an still (or image) from the movie "A man in the moon" where a rocket going to the moon ends up landing in the man on the moons eye. Hugo remembers his father talking about this movie, it was the first one that his father had ever seen and it amazed him. So, their stories intertwine, see? and after Hugo finds him and makes peace with him (he wasn't thought highly by Mr. Melies previously) they team up with a man who helps them find other movies that were not destroyed and restore them. The story that spirels from the two stories here, is one of Hugo having a home (they took him in. He was an orphan anyway) and Melies being able to be happy again, not having to live in the tormented world of thinking that his life's work was destroyed.