74 pages • 2 hours read
Wesley KingOCDaniel
Fiction | Novel | Middle GradeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Character Analysis
Daniel Leigh
Thirteen-year-old Daniel is the main protagonist and narrator of OCDaniel, as well as the near autobiographical representation of King at Daniel’s age. Daniel wishes to be “normal” and fit in but describes himself as “crazy” (1), “nuts” (9), and “completely bonkers” (1). Daniel lives with OCD, which causes him to perform rituals and routines to assuage crippling and painful attacks of anxiety. He struggles to reconcile his desire for social acceptance and normality with his condition, which seems to persistently sabotage this quest, seen most notably in his flicking of the switch at the school dance.
He is writing a book called The Last Kid on Earth, which serves as a metaphor for his battle with OCD and the isolation it causes. Daniel is secretive about his book and his OCD. However, due to his involvement and adventures with Sara, he learns to understand and open up about his condition. He also learns to modify his understanding of what it means to be “normal,” and his desire for normalcy. This is demonstrated through his changing attitudes towards Sara and Raya. Initially, he is interested in Raya, who represents conventional success and normality. He then realizes his true connection is with Sara, who represents the unconventional and supports Daniel on his journey towards healing.
Sara Malvern
Because she doesn’t speak to anyone and isolates herself from others, the other students at school refer to her as “Psycho Sara.” Sara’s selective mutism is due to a range of mental health issues, from depression to mild schizophrenia and anxiety. However, its central cause is the traumatic loss of her father, whom she loved. Until Daniel, her father was the only other person to whom she spoke.
Sara is resourceful, intelligent, and brave, and she uses these qualities on her mission with Daniel to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance. Though Sara often gets upset and runs off, she is highly affectionate and loving. She cares deeply about Daniel and his suffering. Sara also identifies herself as a “Star Child,” someone with unique abilities and alien DNA. This idea helps to justify and valorize her difference and isolation from others, but she realizes it is a consoling illusion to protect her from the truth. The loss of this illusion is compensated for by her fledgling relationships with Daniel and John. She realizes that she does not have to be alone, and that she is not condemned to being “Psycho Sara.”
John
John is Sara’s mother’s boyfriend, and Sara and Daniel suspect him of murdering Sara’s father. Initially, we learn about John through Sara and Daniel’s perceptions, via a lens of suspicion and menace. Sara and Daniel provide accounts of John’s house and living space, which they have broken into. Thus, John is associated with and criticized through the messiness of his home, the empty beer cans in his living room, and the unwashed socks under his bed.
When John uses his own voice in the novel, Sara and Daniel discover that John did not murder her father, and this changes their initial perceptions. As Daniel says, “He suddenly didn’t look like the man I’d thought he was. He had tattoos and a grizzled face, but his dark eyes were soft, and tears still leaked down his cheeks” (274). Daniel and Sara initially judged John based on superficial appearances and certain clichés of criminality, but they discover that John is honest, unpretentious, and forgiving. John bares Daniel no grudge for breaking into his house, nor for accusing him of murder. Sara is fortunate to have John in her life, and the novel sets up the prospect of her developing an authentic relationship with him as a father figure.
