Fairy Tale

Fairy Tale is narrated by an older, present-day version of the protagonist, Charlie Reade. The narrative is structured in the same style as a fairy tale, with the narrator talking about events that happened “once upon a time.” Present-day Charlie opens the novel by saying he sees “a clear thread leading up through the years” (6), setting him up as an omniscient narrator. Early on, Charlie warns readers he is “sure no one will believe” (6), setting up the expectation that the story will take a fantastic turn.

King foreshadows a coming shift in the narrative through references to famous works of fantasy and fairy tales. A copy of Something Wicked This Way Comes, a dark fantasy novel by science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, is conspicuously placed on Mr. Bowditch’s nightstand. Bradbury’s book is a coming-of-age story in which two friends have to best Dr. Dark, the underhanded proprietor of a creepy, traveling carnival. By including this allusion to Bradbury’s book, King lays the groundwork for some themes we’ll see in Fairy Tale, including the capacity for good and evil in each person. Charlie is also well-versed in classic fairy tales. He makes several references to the tale of “Jack and the Beanstalk” and Gogmagog the giant, hinting that this fairy tale will hold particular significance in the narrative.

Despite King’s heavy foreshadowing, the first six chapters of Fairy Tale are a fairly straightforward slice-of-life story. There is nothing particularly magical about Sentry’s Rest, 1 Sycamore, or the idea of a lonely, old man who lives with his dog. All of the narrative’s tragedies and miracles, from Charlie’s mother’s death to his father’s recovery, fall firmly within the realm of the believable. The most extraordinary character introduced so far is Mr. Bowditch, whose opaque past and mysteriously-sourced riches make him seem like a character plucked out of a different story and placed in Sentry’s Rest.

As aforementioned, Charlie describes “a clear thread leading up through the years” (6) from his mother’s death to his relationship with Mr. Bowditch and the adventure that follows. This mention of connected events establishes the theme of The Insurmountable Power of Fate. This is a recurring theme across King’s works, from the Dark Tower series to The Stand; like many other King protagonists, Charlie’s life is not entirely under his control. He is guided by outside intervention into taking on a heroic and life-threatening task. His experiences are implied to be the result of a larger plan laid out by fate, and his role in this plan is a “shackle” that he cannot slip.

Charlie is someone most readers would perceive as a good person. He devotes himself to others and perseveres through tragedy. Yet his inner monologue reveals that he has done unkind things to others in the past, especially in the company of Bertie Bird. Charlie struggles with the memories of behaving badly. He wants to be moral and kind, but feels that his past holds him back from deserving the title of “good person.” Here, King begins to establish the novel’s philosophy on goodness and the theme of Moral Deserts. A moral desert is when someone receives a just consequence for their actions; a reward for doing something good or a punishment for doing something bad. Contrary to Charlie’s fears, goodness is not an inherent or static quality that one can be deficient in, but something achieved through making moral and kind choices.

In some ways, Charlie is a precocious 17-year-old. He takes on a premature caretaker role due to his father’s alcohol addiction and battles larger concerns than most middle-class teenage boys. Other aspects of his behavior, however, indicate that his self-development is not complete. He carries around suppressed grief about his mother’s death and burning shame about his exploits with Bertie Bird. His relationship with his father is good, but he still bears resentment about his addiction and dislikes seeing his father in “weak” moments. He is hotheaded, making snap decisions like quitting baseball after a decade of playing due to a single instance of frustration.

He also feels an ominous pull toward the heaps of gold in Mr. Bowditch’s secret safe. Charlie’s reaction to the gold reflects a normal-but-unsavory emotion: greed. Charlie thinks about “Jack and the Beanstalk” while looking at Mr. Bowditch’s gold, the first appearance of this motif in the text. Alluding to this fairy tale creates an intertextual link between the two stories. In “Jack and the Beanstalk,” Jack’s material greed leads him into a dangerous confrontation with the giant Gogmagog. If Charlie’s life parallels Jack’s, then he too must exercise caution around his more self-serving impulses. King lays the foundation here for another of the book’s themes: The Universal Capacity for Evil. Charlie has been established as a caring person who aspires to do good, but he is tempted by Mr. Bowditch’s gold. Anyone can give in to their worst impulses, and King’s concept of goodness is less about inherent characteristics and more about consciously choosing to do good things.

Another major plot point in these early chapters is Charlie’s deep bond with Radar the dog. They share a classic “boy and his dog” dynamic, which makes both characters easier to empathize with. Their relationship plays into a larger thread in the text about the essential bond between animals and humans.