Fablehaven; An imaginary world full of Excitement, Magic and
Danger
Intro: There is a
promise at the front of book that
says, “None who enter Fablehaven will
leave unchanged,” in Brandon Mull’s 2006 children’s literature fantasy, Fablehaven. And, that’s exactly what
happens to Kendra, the main character of the book who is Symbolically an orphan
drowned into her fear of family abandonment. Fablehaven is a secret natural preserve of mystical creatures which
only exist in Kendra’s imagination. The secret “Milk” which leads Kendra to a
new world full of excitement and danger, where everything seems to happen as
she has expected, helps her in the end to get closer to her family like never
before. Kendra is a perfect example of an orphan archetype who starts her
journey with the negative side of an orphan archetype (Suspicious, Negative
thinking, Whiner) and comes out of it at the end by winning the
battle against her own fear by being independent, strong, resilient, survivor
and a positive thinker.
Bio: Brandon Mull
is the author of the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal
bestselling Beyonders and Fablehaven series. His first published
novel is Fablehaven, which was published in June 2006 by Shadow Mountain.
According to Mull, his first novel was never published, because no publishing
companies showed interest. So Fablehaven is his second work even though it was
his first published book. There are five books in Fablehaven series. He has
also written a book called The Candy Shop
War which was published in Sep. 2011. He is now working on his Beyonders series which he expects to
finish by spring 2013.
Summary:
According to Brandon Mull, his intention of writing Fablehaven has been to
provide family-friendly fantasy for kids and adults to share. As we know kids
can imagine and explore fantasy world much better than the most adults do,
their stories are very much appealing to the readers. Fablehaven is totally
based on imagination of a 14 years girl who is struggling to grow and become independent.
The journey starts with Kendra and Seth going to Connecticut to live with their
Grandpa and Grandma Sorenson for 17 days, because their parents are leaving for
a 17 days Scandinavian cruise set by their Grandpa and Grandma Larsen (form the
mother’s side) before their recent death. The grandchildren were not invited
for the cruise and Kendra knew about it. As the story moves on the kids solve a
puzzle which directs them to drink milk. And once they drink the milk, it opens
their eyes to a complete new world. They come to know that Fablehaven is
natural preserve full of mystical creature and their grandfather is the current
caretaker. There are ancient laws that keep the balance between these creatures
and mortal being, but Seth unintentionally breaks the law which risks
everyone’s live. Kendra is the only one
that survives, and she must act thoughtfully and fearlessly to get her family
back form the devil’s captivity.
Pearson and Orphan
archetype: Carl Jung pioneered the idea of archetypes, described as
‘imprints of possibility’ which are available for everyone to access.
Psychologist Carol Pearson developed 12 archetypes, (initially six) among which
Orphan stage falls after Innocent. The Orphan must understand that life is not
just joyful (as innocent would think), but also full of suffering. We are all
born in innocence, but the job of the orphan is to face life head-on instead of
becoming attached to the victim mindset and states of dependency. So, the
orphan must learn on his/her own experience to survive difficulty. Kendra, the
Protagonist in Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven exactly goes through this cycle.
Orphan: In
Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven, the protagonist of the story, Kendra,
is an orphan because she feels that her families are trying to abandon her by
going to a mandatory vacation set by her dead grandparents. (Kids were not
allowed). She thinks her parents will have a good vacation, without the kids.
(She is suspicious about the whole vacation set up). She didn’t believe when
her parents said, “we will miss you.” Once, Kendra heard her mother requesting
grandpa Sorenson to take care of the kids when they go away for vacation.
During the conversation she found grandpa Sorenson unwilling to take care of
kids. She heard him saying, “Why can’t they stay with Marci?” “What about a
baby-sitter?” “Does it have to be late June? Why not July?” and “I suppose we
could find a place to lock them up.” Kendra is a kid who does what she is told.
She is morally good, she follows the rule and she believes in what she hears.
She is a little naïve. So, after hearing Grandpa Sorenson’s conversation with
her Mom she believes that the Grandpa Sorenson does not love them at all. She
has facts to back up her argument. For example, Grandpa and Grandma Sorenson
had never invited them to stay with them and their visits to Rochester
(Kendra’s home town) had been too infrequent and brief that no real bond could
occur. Kendra also has a younger brother who never listens to her, and he is on
his own most of the time. So it seems like Kendra wants to get closer to her
families, but she is not able to. She thinks none of her family members care
about her. So she clearly represents and orphan archetype who is about to find
about life is not full of happiness.
Monomyth: According
to Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a
Thousand Faces,” A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a
region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive
victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the
power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” In Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven, Kendra is a hero with an Orphan
character who goes to Fablehaven (crossing
of threshold), faces the challenges
and returns with something that she has never experience.
Separation: Kendra
and her brother Seth are left with their grandfather for 17 days at the
grandfather’s place. Her parents must go for a 17 days Scandinavian cruise set
by her dead grandparents (Grandparents, Larson). Kendra is afraid of living
with her Grandpa Sorenson because she though the he didn’t like kinds, and she
also didn’t know him well. Her grandmother wasn’t there at the time, and she
never saw them together. She sometime thought maybe they were secretly
divorced. On her way to her grandfather’s place, there were many signs that
made her think that there is something going on there that she is not aware of.
She remembers her grandfather telling her mom “Things get a little crazy in
mid-June” Kendra didn’t know that mean, but she expects something to happen in
June with her grandparents. So, Kendra and her parents are separated for 17
days, and she must take care of herself and her younger brother. She has to be
more responsible.
Adventure: Grandpa
Sorenson sets some new rules. He tells the kids not to go into the woods. They
could explore the garden or the tree house or the pool, but not into the woods
because he thinks they can get Lyme diseases from tick bites. Grandfather gives
Kendra three small keys and he challenges her to look for the key holes if she
could (test 1). Kendra wanted to talk to grandpa Sorenson,
but he seems less interested and he tells her he is very busy (abandon). Seth, her brother goes into
wood alone(leaving Kendra alone) and when he returns he claims that he saw a
weird old witch. Kendra unlocks the three locks with the keys grandfather
Sorenson gave her and she sees a mysterious message which says “Drink milk.”
Then Kendra and Seth drinks the milk (Talisman)
and they start to see fairies, which were once butterflies and humblebees.
Seth going into the forest and Kendra seeing the mysterious message,
“Drink milk” are all Kendra’s imagination, because she knew that Seth was a kid
who like adventure (a rule breaker) and so she was expecting this kind of
behavior from him. The “Drink milk” message is also nothing more than her
imagination, because she saw Dale and Lena, the house keeper secretly feeding
insects and butterflies with milk. But when she asked her why they were doing
it so secretly, they said, it’s because they didn’t want grandpa Sorenson to
know (He may think that they are wasting milk). Kendra was not satisfied with
their answer and she thought maybe there is something going on with the milk.
So this is the reason the word “Drink milk” came into her imagination. Then,
Seth again breaks the rule. This time he catches a fairy and keeps it in jar.
The fairy turns into an evil animal and then they retaliate back. Seth,
Grandpa, Grandma and Lena all get abducted and Kendra must do something to save
her families (Test 2). She didn’t
know what to do, where to ask for help or may be do nothing. She is scared as hell and she never was in a
situation like this before. So essentially she is an orphan and she needs to
grow up and do something that an adult would do. She goes to the fairy queen to
get some help and the Fairy Queen (Help from God) says something like
“blood” and “milk” and gives her a brass bowl (Magical help) So Kendra gathers all the clues and she comes to the
conclusion that she has to mix some blood with the milk, form that strange cow.
Once she makes this mixture (mixture of
blood and cow’s milk= talisman), she gives them to the butterflies and the
humblebees, which turns them into fairy twice the human size. The Fairies (supernatural aid) help Kendra to rescue
her families from the evils and the family is united.
Return: Kendra can’t believe so much has happen in just 17 days.
She can’t believe what she has just gone through. She thinks may be this was a
dream (Clue that this could be dream). When she came here, she though these 17
days would one of the most boring days of her life, but now she doesn’t even
want to count how many days are left. Everyone is happy, and so is she. She
knows her grandparents very well and she is hoping to visit here very soon. Her
grandfather tells her all the secrets about Fablehaven
in details and he thinks one day Kendra will be the caretaker, because of her
recent bravery and obedience.
Conclusion: Kendra is an
orphan who begins her imaginary journey with the belief that nothing bad will
happen to you, if you do not deserve it. She believes life is full of happiness
and you will always have someone taking care of you. But, she completes her
journey by experiencing difficulty, by being independent and a warrior.
Mull, Brandon. Fablehaven. Print.
