The Faery Handbag Character Analysis

In “The Faery Handbag” written by Kelly Link there is a strong focus on the Characters in within the story who give us insight to the overall central theme. To begin, the story follows a girl named Genevieve. We soon learn her close connection to her grandmother Zofia. She begins to introduce Zofia with an in reference to her grandmother’s storytelling, “Promise me that you won’t believe a word” (p.577). This is where we begin to contradict between what to believe as the truth and what is a lie. There is an underlining struggle to believe to commit to believing this magic or simply think the grandmother is crazy. She can also be quite entertaining and bazar with her exaggerated tales about her black “magical” handbag. Following …show more content…
She would also be consider an example of an unreliable narrator. There are many times throughout where we can question the validity of her point of view. “I know that no one is going to believe any of this. That’s okay. If I thought you would, then I couldn’t tell you. Promise that you won’t believe a word” (p.578). Connecting to the ability to distinguish between the ideas of magical realism. Her presence of the narrator plays an important role in this factor by giving the reader a chance to personally connect with the both the narrator and the main character. As Genevieve guides us through from start to end, we can gather a sense of her young, optimistic, and imaginative, …show more content…
The handbag has this mystical, unknown and delightful characteristics sounding it. The characters view this bag as a happier world, with amazing endless adventures inside. “If you open it one way, then it was just a purse big enough to hold a chicken and an egg and a clay cooking pot… If you opened the clasp the other way, then you found yourself in a little boat floating at the mouth of the river” (p.581). You must take a step back and see there is another way to look at this delightful handbag, this would be taking a trip into the unknown, a trip that cuts you off from the real world and all of its connections, a trip you might never come back from. The situations that Genevieve, Zofia, and Jake are in, along with their background play a key role in how they view this handbag. Jake has lost his mother, his father very soon after remarries his former teacher. Zofia is portrayed as cheerful and mysterious but looking deeper Zofia just like Jake come from a rough background everyone from her childhood has disappeared and her husband left her to be alone in the real world. Lastly, Genevieve has just lost her grandmother and Jake, placing the blame on the handbag would be admitting that Jake ran away from her on purpose and that he did not love her like she loves