56 pages • 1 hour read
Stephen KingA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Charlie Reade is the novel’s protagonist. A 17-year-old high school student, Charlie lives alone with his father after his mother’s tragic death. Charlie learns how to take care of others early on due to his father’s alcohol addiction. After his wish for his father’s recovery is granted, he feels obligated to care for Mr. Bowditch and Radar, but soon grows to organically love both of them.
Charlie struggles with the knowledge that he spent several years after his mother’s death acting out and bullying others. He feels ashamed of his past, and whenever he has an unkind impulse he is reminded of this shame. He also harbors repressed grief about his mother’s death and resentment about his father’s years dealing with addiction.
Charlie fulfills the trope of “the chosen one,” a hero preselected by destiny to save the land of Empis. Still, Charlie must grow into the role of Empis’s promised prince by bonding with the Empirians and leading the effort to save Lilimar. Along the way, he learns more about human nature and the type of person he wants to be.
Charlie goes through several classic fairy tale trials, including slaying giants and falling in love with a beautiful princess. As he grows into his role as a hero, his physical appearance changes to match that of an archetypical Disney prince. Part of his growth entails learning that true bravery extends beyond just taking risks; it means helping others even when it would be easier to walk away. The killings he commits in service of liberating Empis teach him that he is capable of cruelty when necessary, but he would rather choose to be a moral and kind person.
By the time he saves Empis, Charlie is an “older, wiser” version of himself. He makes peace with his imperfect character and learns to live with the scars left by his life’s tragedies. His past no longer weighs him down, and he accepts that his experiences will always be a part of him.
Mr. Bowditch, Charlie’s elderly neighbor, is the person who introduces him to Radar and the well of the worlds. Mr. Bowditch takes Empis’s resources for his own benefit, utilizing Lilimar’s life-giving sundial and stealing gold pellets from the palace. His exploits enable him to live a long and wealthy life, but at the cost of his personal relationships.
On his deathbed, Mr. Bowditch rues his choices. Early on, he tells a confused Charlie that “a brave man helps,” while “cowards just bring presents” (51). When Charlie journeys to Empis, he understands the meaning of this sentence. Mr. Bowditch befriended the Empirians and brought gifts that improved their standard of living, but did not intervene when their world fell under attack. He was not brave enough to risk his own safety, and his regret over this follows him to his final breath.
After his death, Mr. Bowditch bequeaths Charlie the “burden” of knowledge about the well of the worlds. Charlie is able to finish what Mr. Bowditch couldn’t and saves the Empirians before walling off the well. He comes away from his adventure with a new perspective on his late friend. Mr. Bowditch’s character embodies the complexity of good and evil deeds in Fairy Tale.
Elden is Leah’s younger brother and a major antagonist in the second half of Fairy Tale. As a child, Elden’s siblings severely bully him for his ugliness. Along with Leah, he spends his time wandering the nooks and crannies of the palace, where he discovers the Deep Well into another world below Empis. While Leah turns away from this darkness, Elden leans into it. One day, he disappears into the dark depths of the castle. He strikes a Lovecraftian deal with Gogmagog, turning himself into a half-human monster named Flight Killer. As Flight Killer, his only goal is to destroy all goodness and beauty in the world due to the trauma he endured as a child.
In his final moments, he displays brief regret, but it’s too late for him to reverse the changes the Deep Well’s dark magic made to his body and soul. Elden’s life is a cautionary tale about the ultimate result of unchecked hatred. With this, he is also a foil for Charlie; a product of choosing to lean into evil and darkness rather than work towards being a better person as Charlie does.
Charlie’s father, who is never named, raises Charlie alone after the death of his mother. He struggles with alcohol addiction for several years after the accident but gets sober in what Charlie considers a miracle. Though Charlie resents the years his father spent as an incompetent parent, he ultimately forgives him and they repair their close relationship. Charlie’s father’s recovery is a testament to Fairy Tale’s philosophy that mistakes made in the past do not condemn a person’s character; rather, one’s character is a running sum of intentional choices.
A member of the former royal family, Leah is a stoic, beautiful woman whose mouth was erased by the Gallien curse. Leah feels immense guilt over the fact that she didn’t look for Elden after he vanished. Deep down, she knows that Elden is Flight Killer, but the knowledge is too painful to accept, so she does not confront him until Charlie’s arrival. Charlie and Leah’s bond helps them heal and cope with their respective losses. At the end of the novel, Leah takes the throne as queen of Empis.
Radar is Mr. Bowditch’s elderly German shepherd. After Mr. Bowditch’s death, Charlie takes over her care. Radar and Charlie form a close bond. Their relationship drives Charlie to go through the well of the worlds to restore her youth. After he places her on the sundial, Radar becomes a young, spry dog again, and she participates in Charlie’s rescue later in the book. By the time Charlie narrates Fairy Tale, Radar is once again approaching old age, but he notes that she already lived a supernaturally long life for a dog.
Christopher Polley is one of Fairy Tale’s secondary antagonists. A short man who speaks with an oddly cartoonish affect, Polley robs 1 Sycamore after Mr. Bowditch’s death and threatens Charlie’s life to get his hands on Mr. Bowditch’s gold pellets. In the narrative’s fairy tale parallel, he represents Rumpelstiltskin, a shrewd and greedy person who takes advantage of others for personal gain. He also represents the mundane evil of humanity.
By Stephen King