Setting and Theme
This book takes place in a land called Fantastica. It is in a book that is read by Bastian Balthazar Bux, who is a main character. The part where Bastian is reading the book could happen in the present, but the part in Fantastica is fantasy times.There is a very strange effect on the plot from Fantastica. Because it is in a fantasy world, most readers would think it was a happy place. However, sad things still happen. For example, Grograman, the Many-Colored Death. Every night he dies, but in the morning he is born again. When Bastian was with him, and he saw that Grograman had died, he was sad for him and cried. I was interested at the way that in Fantastica things should be happy, but some things aren't. Some of the themes that I noticed in this book were as follows: happiness, helping, and unlawfulness. Happiness is a theme because of the way that some of the places in this book were happy. However, sadness is also a theme because of the sad places in Fantastica. Helping is a theme because when Bastian was using AURYN, he was also losing his memories, so Atreyu helped him find the Water of Life to get his memory back, which also returned him to reality. Unlawfulness is a theme because Bastian had stolen The Neverending Story from a bookstore, and was hiding from everyone else to read it.Character Traits
Bastian Balthazar Bux is the protagonist in The Neverending Story. He is a nice kid who is always picked on by other kids at his school, which is really mean. Some of his traits are: perseverance, friendliness, and perplexity. Perseverance, because he persevered through the story until near the end, when he was given the Water of Life. Friendliness, because he was friendly to the creatures that he had created in Fantastica. Perplexity, because his story, inside The Neverending Story, is full of wonder and mystery. The trait of perseverance affected the resolution of the story the most. This is true because he was able to last many days and nights in Fantastica with AURYN without having his memories slip away. He also persevered the time that Grograman had died and he had wept for him. The third and final example of why the trait helped to affect the plot is that he was able to persevere the night in the attic that he was reading in, as he had to endure hunger and cold to survive. Some minor characters that helped him were Atreyu, the boy warrior, and Falkor, the luckdragon, who helped them fly places.
Conflict & Resolution
The main conflict actually switches midway through the story. The first part of the conflict is that the Childlike Empress needs a new name. Bastian resolves that by giving her the name of Moon Child. However, after that there was a second conflict. The second conflict was trying to get Bastian back to the real world. This conflict was resolved after Atreyu and Falkor helped him get the Water of Life, also returning him to reality. An important part of the story is the conversation with the bookstore owner and Bastian. Bastian is telling the book store owner that he had lost his mother and that he and his dad didn't really have a relationship. That changed after Bastian had returned to reality. He and his dad were starting to talk to each other again and started their relationship again.
Conclusion
In conclusion for this book report, I was amazed at how interesting this novel was. I am now interested in seeing if there is a sequel to this book! I recommend reading this book, as it might interest you as much as it did to me!
