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thelastunicornflipouts · 10 months

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EDIT: thanks for the likes, comments, and reblogs! I am planning on doing an analysis on each of Schmendrick’s spinoff novelettes, since every single one of them adds layers to his character. I have a huge soft spot for movie-Schmendrick - he is the cutest patatino ever - but unfortunately he lacks most of the depth book-Schmendrick has.

“The Green-Eyed Boy” analysis. Was Schmendrick a neglected child?

Though it’s – maybe - not one of Peter Beagle’s masterpieces, I still think “The Green-Eyed Boy” does a perfect job in its shortness (it’s not even 20 pages long) in portraying Schmendrick’s character and in explaining his behaviour not only in the short novel itself, but also in the other works that feature Schmendrick, being them the ones that predate it (like “The Last Unicorn”) or subsequent ones.

“The Green-Eyed Boy” is a short story about Schmendrick’s apprenticeship with Nikos, the narrating voice of the novelette, and it opens the short tales’ collection “The Overneath,” which includes another Schmendrick’ story, “Schmendrick Alone.” Even though the latter it’s another interesting portray of the magician, “The Green-Eyed Boy” seems to be much more poignant when it comes to explain where Schmendrick comes from and why he acts the way he does.

GREEN EYES

Despite most people would remember Schmendrick’s movie-version, where he has light teal eyes - most possibly due to the overall blue palette of the movie, which would have made the colour green too much of a distraction, but at the same time his clear eyes make a nice contrast with the overall dark tone of the movie – he is described in the book version as having bright, almond-shaped green eyes. It is those green eyes that are his most defining characteristic (rather than his large nose, which it is still mentioned in the novelette but it’s not as notable as in the movie), hence the title itself. But, even though they immediately catch Nikos’ attention and are what ultimately make him decide to take Schmendrick as an apprentice, they seem to be more as a stigma than else, as Nikos mentions: “I don’t know where he got them” … “but no one in his family ever had eyes like those.” Immediately, Schmendrick is presented as separate from his family. His most striking feature is what cuts him off from them, doesn’t matter where the eyes come from. He is different, visibly different, and he is treated as such.

SCHMENDRICK’S PARENTS

What follows next it’s Nikos meeting with Schmendrick. Or, more precisely, Nikos interacting with the boy’s father while the latter gets abandoned at his place. Schmendrick’s father is immediately presented as a rough man, obsessed with his work to the point that he could only measure his kids’ worth with how much they could help with the cooperage. He never directly addresses Schmendrik – except for when he leaves, where he simply gives him a slap on the head and tells him to work hard – and he is always dismissive, when not downright emotionally abusive, calling Schmendrick – who, let’s not forget, is twelve years old in the novel – “useless”, commenting how he cannot help with any of the family's trade, his uncles' included. He does not allow Schmendrick to talk on his own, not even when the boy has to tell his name, and argues with Nikos when he does not accept any fee, in fear that the wizard would send the boy back home.

There’s plenty of information – if indirect – about Schmendrick’s mother as well. She is never seen, only mentioned. In “The Last Unicorn” it is played for laughs, when a very drunk Schmendrick interrupts the head of a cursed village to comment how his mother never liked him. Here it seems clear that his mother has put a lot of expectations on him since his birth, giving him a high-sounding name (“… which was the name of an ancient hero, best remembered for slaying a many-headed sea monster, but dying himself in the battle.”), a name his father immediately objects on, commenting on how it was his wife insisting on giving the baby boy such name. Yet, she is nowhere to be seen, even though Schmendrick’s father comments that she “sends love.” She will never visit Schmendrick, as if he is something she wishes to forget, a boy she put many expectations on which he then failed to comply. I would not be surprised if she is the one who has begun to call the child Schmendrick, a name the boy is so used to that he would not answer any other, as he himself admits, bitterly aware of the meaning and implications of such nickname.

NEGLECT

Schmendrick, as already said, seems bitterly and acutely aware of his nickname, to the point that he can give Nikos a way too much accurate definition of it (“The boy who is sent to do a man’s job” … “The person utterly out of his depth, far beyond his pitiful capacities.”). Nikos himself is shaken both by the name itself and Schmendrick’s self-contempt. There is another one key element, though. This is the first time Schmendrick speaks. And he speaks clearly, with a pretty articulate vocabulary for a boy his age. Until now he has kept quiet, staring in front of himself, apparently even unable to tell his own name without his father’s intervention. It might sound counterintuitive until you realize that Schmendrick is simply doing what most neglected and emotionally abused children do to keep safe: he is trying to avoid to attract attention on himself. Until his father speaks, Schmendrick keeps quiet, staring at nothing, and acts anxious when he is addressed with a question, even if said question is as simple as “What are you called, boy?” He knows far too well – and Nikos notices too – that if he attracts attention, he will get insulted or dismissed as a fool, so he prefers to stay silent. More painfully, he keeps quiet until his father leaves. Only then he speaks freely, in front of a stranger – a potentially scary stranger, being Nikos a wizard.

Immediately after, Nikos comments that all he has done for Schmendrick for the first days was feeding him, musing that maybe his parents had not given him enough food. Schmendrick, still in Nikos’ words, seems to be overly focused on food for a while, something that it’s hinted even later in the story as one thing that might stop Schmendrick from leaving after he has caused a mess with magic (“Go, put your things away and see what’s left of yesterday’s potato stew.”). Given that Schmendrick’s dad seems to be pretty obsessed over work and that Schmendrick’s two (or three, since “Schmendrick Alone” mentions three brothers, but it might be just a mistake since the story is a few years following “The Green-Eyed Boy”) older brothers are said to be trained to take over the cooperage, it is perfectly plausible that Schmendrick, being seen as the most “useless” and expendable child, is given less food, to the point that, at twelve, Nikos is even convinced that the boy has been starved and it is canon that also adult Schmendrick has a very thin frame. Might it be a consequence from childhood, when he was so used to be hungry that he is not bothered by feeling it? In “The Woman Who Married The Man In The Moon” – which is by far the darkest among Schmendrick’s short stories – he is about to refuse Sairey’s invite to dinner, before he accepts and comments: “Many thanks. I sometimes forget that I am hungry.” This might be a clue that Schmendrick is used to hunger pains, both because of his vagrant lifestyle and his childhood.

SCHMENDRICK’S APPRENTICESHIP

Aside from mourning on Schmendrick’s difficulties and mistakes, Nikos is extremely adamant that his student was a hardworking, smart, and mindful one. Schmendrick studies an awful lot and practices incessantly, giving the reader a much different portrait of him from the one anticipated by his father. The boy is far from stupid, and he seems to be – even though Nikos never says it directly, only hinting it through sentences that inform the reader that he had let Schmendrick the run of his private library, or that Schmendrick was an extremely attentive student who not only understood but also could elaborate the lessons – the best student the old wizard has ever had, aside from the natural power Nikos had sensed. Schmendrick is capable and clever, as other stories hint (it is said that he is quite good with riddles and charades, can cipher, knows multiple languages and is wise beyond his years), still it is his motivation to do all this that seems to be his worst hinderance. Schmendrick does see the underlying theme of magic, he knows that nothing is forever, and everything yearns to be something else. So it is his desire. He has been seen as a worthless fool for all his life, and now he wants to be seen as something different, more powerful, and more respectable, such as a wizard just like Nikos (a sentiment that it’s much better portrayed in “Schmendrick Alone,” where a 19yo Schmendrick constantly thinks about what Nikos would - or wouldn’t - do or say, in the circumstances he finds himself into, to the point he even conciously mimicks some of his tutor's mannerisms). Schmendrick is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, wanting to prove others and himself who he really is and what he is capable of. His most annoying, and notable, characteristic in “The Last Unicorn” is his attention-seeking demeanour and his tendency to brag to whomever interacts with him long enough to let him do so. He alternates moments of incredible wisdom with comical lack of style which are only apparently at odds. Schmendrick is a very smart and capable individual who yearns for praise and attention, a child who has always been measured for what he is not able to do instead of his real capacities. This, however, in a twisted self-fulfilling prophecy, is exactly what makes difficult for him to perform magic, despite all his genuine effort. He sees magical talent as instrumental for him to be recognized – to be seen, and this is what it’s causing him so much trouble and failure.

SARDANA

In the last pages of the novelette, the reader is introduced to the only (acquired) family member who comes to visit Schmendrick, to “see if he was happy and treated well,” an apparently throwaway sentence that it’s instead very telling about Schmendrick’s parents and brothers’ consideration of him, since they have apparently forgotten about him or do not care how he is doing. Sardana is one of Schmendrick’s brothers (the middle son, from what it’s told in the story, which lets us know that Schmendrick has at least two adult brothers while he is still a child) wife and she is very vocal about her worries about Schmendrick. She too has felt an outcast in the cooper’s household - since, as she says, hers was a combined marriage for business reasons - and Schmendrick was the only one who was good to her. Not much else is said about their bond, but it is safe to say that young Schmendrick has seen himself mirrored in poor Sardana. Later, it becomes apparent that Schmendrick, who should be 13 or 14 years old around this time, has a strong infatuation for Sardana. This is extremely telling. Schmendrick, who has never received love or, simply, care and affection, is unable to tell the difference between romantic love and platonic love. He mistakes Sardana’s concern with love, a very common reaction among people who had been emotionally neglected and abused, who might think that the person caring about them is in love or become extremely clingy to those who show affection to them. Very telling is Schmendrick’s reactions. He pesters Nikos for guidance on what to do for Sardana. Schmendrick has been considered a helpless fool until now and puts his personal value in what he can do, not who he is. He cannot think that Sardana might appreciate him for him – which she does – but only for what he might be able to do for her, which will lead him to perform a very dangerous spell that might cost him his sanity.

ESCAPISM

Another thing that can be inferred from “The Green-Eyed Boy” is very covert in the story itself, but it gets clearer in every other Schmendrick’s spin-off short story. In “The Last Unicorn” Schmendrick is the character who appears to be the most genre-savvy about stories and fairytales, while in other novelettes, especially in “The Woman Who Married The Man In The Moon,” it’s obvious that he possesses a wealth of tales he tells others or himself. Most importantly, in the same novelette, he tells these stories right in the moment in which other characters need comfort and soothing, being them lost and confused children or a grieving widow. This might be a sign that Schmendrick is well into the habit of escapism, which might have begun from a young age. Being a lonely child, neglected by his family and – safe to assume from a comment from Nikos – bullied by the rest of the townsfolk, it is very likely that child Schmendrick might have begun to read and invent stories he then told to himself to keep himself company. As previously said, Schmendrick appears to have the tendency to space often in “The Green-Eyed Boy”. While his family considers this a sign that he might be just a simpleton or tossed in the head, it might also mean that he is dissociating from the situation – in “The Green-Eyed Boy” Schmendrick is shown to do that right when his father is insulting him. His might be a coping mechanism to feel less alone and to protect himself when others attack him.

#The Last Unicorn #tlu #schmendrick #schmendrick the magician #the green eyed boy #peterbeagle #schmendrick novelettes #schmendrick spinoffs #schmendrick analysis #child neglect #emotional abuse #review and analysis #schmendrick's childhood #I work with abused children #and they painfully share many characteristics #schmendrick was definitively a neglected child

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