Fablehaven; An
imaginary world full of Excitement, Magic and Danger
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 the 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. she is suspicious, she is more of a negative thinker and she is a whiner. But, she 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.
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.
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. It may be because the
kids like to keep themselves far away from the reality. 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, Kendra’s younger brother, 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. Kendra feels that they are ignored. As
the story moves on, the kids solve a puzzle given by their Grandpa, which
directs them to drink milk. And once they drink milk, it opens their eyes to a
complete new world. They come to know that
Fablehaven is a 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.
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 an 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.
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. The 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.” She thought her Mom and Dad was probably
laughing, relieved to be off by themselves for the longest vacation of their
married life. When her parents gave her a final hug before they leave, she
wanted to cry, but she fought them back. She felt tears seeping into her eyes,
but she was able to control. So she is trying to grow.
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 an orphan archetype who is about to find that life is not full of happiness.
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. She completes her journey by knowing more about life, more about her family and herself.
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 kids, and she also didn’t know him well. Her grandmother wasn’t there at
the time, and she never saw . 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. For example there was a sign hanging near the fence saying, “Certain Death Awaits” which made Kendra
think that her grandfather was paranoid. 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 in a place where she expects weird things to happen.
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. Grandpa Sorenson gives Kendra three small keys and he challenges her to look for the key holes if she could (test 1). Grandpa Sorenson’s conversations with the kids are very direct and brief. Kendra wanted to talk to grandpa Sorenson, but he seems less interested and he tells her he is very busy (abandon). Grandpa Sorenson’s character makes the readers think that the kids are indeed abandoned. Seth 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 them why they were doing it so secretly, they said, it’s because they didn’t want grandpa Sorenson to know becasue "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 by evils except Kendra. The reason behind Kendra not getting abducted is because she needs to be independent and brave. Kendra feels she 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. So, 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) The fairy Queen not giving a clear message about what to do is because Kendra needs to think on her own like an adult would do. And Kendra does think carefully and gathers all the clues. She comes to the conclusion that she needs to mix the blood with the milk, but she is not sure whether to mix her own blood or the cow’s blood. She decides to mix her blood as well as the cow’s blood just to make sure (she is becoming smarter and understand the situation better). 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.
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 be 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. The tone of grandfather Sorenson seems to have changed at the end. He answers every question that Kendra asks, unlike in the beginning of the story. Kendra has become more independent and she is happy with the fact that she did what she fear the most. So Kendra is beginning to develop the warrior’s archetype. She has been through so many difficulties and challenges during this 17 days, and she never gave up.
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. On the web http://brandonmull.com/site/
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