Character Analysis of Weylyn Grey and Edward Bloom

The essay aims to compare and contrast the two lead characters from the novels Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance and Big Fish respectively. The essay will first provide a brief overview of the two novels and the characters in particular. Then, the essay will attempt to find the similarities and differences between the two characters. Ruth Emmi Lang is the author of Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance while Daniel Wallace has penned Big Fish.

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Character Analysis of Weylyn Grey and Edward Bloom
Introduction
The essay aims to compare and contrast the two lead characters from the novels Beasts of
Extraordinary Circumstance and Big Fish respectively. The essay will first provide a brief
overview of the two novels and the characters in particular. Then, the essay will attempt to find
the similarities and differences between the two characters. Ruth Emmi Lang is the author of
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance while Daniel Wallace has penned Big Fish.
Lang’s novel was published in 2017 while Wallace’s novel came out back in 1998.
However, in both the novels, the main characters demonstrate extraordinary strengths and
capabilities. It will be interesting to find out the things that differentiate and distance the two
characters. The primary objective of the essay is to argue that Edward’s character was more
developed than Weylyn’s because despite having no superpowers, Edward possessed a
superhuman attitude.
Discussion
Weylyn Gray, orphaned in his childhood, lives with wolves in the forest who raise him as
one of theirs. His character is introduced to the readers through the perspectives of those who
have encountered Weylyn. It thus provides a neutral view of the character. Weylyn is charming

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and appealing as he allows the readers to acknowledge his mysterious supernatural gifts
(Locusmag.com). It is established at the beginning of the novel that Weylyn has supernatural
gifts of which, he himself was not aware. He always used to think of himself as lonely despite his
outward, silly and lovable nature until one day when he single-handedly stops a tornado. He
travels places and meets people whose lives he affects in some or the other way. While narrating
the adventures or legend of Weylyn, these people present different interpretations of him, which
makes his character even more mystical and interesting.
Weylyn, although powerful, was weak at heart because he could not muster the courage
to express his feelings to Mary, he girl he loved. However, he is not aware that Mary also liked
him as he had rescued her on her eleventh birthday from a mad wolf. It is therefore clear that
Weylyn had an influence of each individual who knew him.
Edward Bloom, the protagonist in Big Fish, on the other hand, has no supernatural
powers as such, but he was an extraordinary man in his own rights. His story is told in the form
of flashbacks of his son, Willie Bloom. Edward was adventurous man although he did not have
much to boast about his work. He was a traveling salesman. A jocular, well-liked man, Edward
married his love, Sandra with whom he had Willie (Putri). However, he often felt suffocated with
the responsibilities of looking after his family and hence spent most of his time traveling and
acquainting with new people. Edward had always projected himself as a hero to his son through
the stories of his adventures on road (Putri). Most of his storytelling were in forms of joke, even
at the time of his death, he did not stop telling jokes.

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Edward did not have a life that he had wished for and that is why his stories that he
narrated to his son, reflected his desires of leading that life. He felt inadequate mostly, wanting
but unable to do extraordinary things.
The above description of the two characters reveal that both had many flaws in their
character but despite that, they rose above it and left a mark on the people they knew.
Nonetheless, these two characters had some dissimilarity as well. The following section shall
provide a comprehensive compare and contrast discussion of the two characters.
Both Weylyn and Edward were male protagonists, which is one of the most common
similarities. Apart from that, both had a love interest – Mary in Weylyn’s case and Sandra in
Edward’s case. Weylyn has a charming personality although some thought he was just weird.
Similarly, Edward too was a lively person making everyone laugh with his jokes and fall for his
extremely good looks and persona. However, both Weylyn and Edward had a different side to
their personality that they had managed to hide from the outside world and that was their feelings
of inadequacy. While Edward narrated his stories of bravery and adventure to his son, he knew
that his life was incomplete and he could not achieve the things he wanted to achieve; as the
name of the novel suggests, he wanted to be the ‘big fish’. Weylyn, likewise, was full of fun and
humor, was a superhero of sorts but often felt a sense of inadequacy. In both their lives, they had
confronted difficult, unexplainable situations filled with witches, monsters, storms; tornadoes
and so on but never give up. Therefore, it is clear that numerous elements in the lives of Edward
and Weylyn demonstrate that they had many things in common.
In terms of differences, it could be stated that the main difference between the two
characters is the context of their life. While on one hand, Weylyn grew up in forests with the

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wolves, on the other, Edward grew up in the town of Ashton, Alabama. Further, Weylyn was an
orphan and had literally no one to call family whereas Edward had a family and a wealthy one as
well. While Weylyn truly had supernatural powers, which he discovers when he stops a tornado;
Edward’s superhero traits like his bones failing to keep up with his growing body are
questionable. The reason is that those were the stories that Edward had narrated to his son. In
addition, Edward’s claim that he talked a monster out of destructing his town and so on is all
stories that the audiences doubt. In contrast to this, Weylyn’s superpowers are real because
people whom he had met have accounted for those. Another contrasting feature between the two
is that one character was developed back in the late 1990s while the other was recently
introduced.
While both the characters had resemblances and differences, Edward’s character was
fully developed because of several reasons. At first, it can be argued that although Weylyn grew
up in difficult circumstances and later realized that he had powers, Edward was able to make
small situations into supernatural ones. Whilst Weylyn struggled controlling his superpowers and
risked the lives of those who met him including his love Mary, Edward was able to inspire and
motivate people into believing in the positive. One instance of this could be given of the situation
where he convinces the giant Karl that the city is too small for him and that he should move to a
bigger city that could accept him. Moreover, Edward’s whimsical stories and over the top
descriptions provide more inspiration than Weylyn’s real life circumstances (Putri). It is
therefore evident that Edward’s character is more fully developed than that of Weylyn’s because
Edward makes the readers or viewers believe in his ideologies, even if not in his stories.
Conclusion

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In the end, it can be stated that the character analysis of Edward Bloom and Weylyn Grey
has helped understand the complexities of human life. In a sense, both the characters give the
message of standing tall in the face of adversities and staying positive always. This could be said
especially of Edward, whom despite not having the life he wanted, never displayed negativity
neither he gave up. The essay tried to discuss in details, the traits of each lead character from the
novels Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance and Big Fish. Both the writers – Ruth Emmi Lang
of Beasts and Daniel Wallace of Big Fish – have managed to portray basic human nature through
extraordinary settings.

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Works cited:
Locusmag.com. "Lila Garrott Reviews Beasts Of Extraordinary Circumstance By Ruth Emmie
Lang". Locus Online, 2018, https://locusmag.com/2018/05/lila-garrott-reviews-beasts-of-
extraordinary-circumstance-by-ruth-emmie-lang/. Accessed 30 Nov 2018.
Putri, Rifqi Amri. "The Absence of Fatherhood from William Bloom as Reflected in Daniel
Wallace’s Big Fish: A Study of Masculinism." Journal of Language and Literature 4.1 (2017).