The Neverending Story

In the second half of the novel, Bastian shifts roles from hero to anti-hero, changing from an imaginative boy who wants to improve himself to a mistrustful and power-hungry leader at the head of a hollow army. As each wish erases his memory, Bastian forgets his past and his identity and becomes consumed with the desire for power. The loss of his memory functions as an illusion, tricking Bastian into believing that he can rule Fantastica and that AURYN gives him the power and the right to do whatever he wants.

Signs of Bastian’s degeneration begin with his decision to visit the Ivory Tower and seek out the Childlike Empress. Although Atreyu reminds him that “no one can meet the Golden-eyed Commander of Wishes more than once” (258), Bastian believes that Moon Child remains in his debt for saving Fantastica and ignores Atreyu’s advice. Additionally, Bastian begins to believe that “Atreyu and Falkor [are] treating him like a child” (267) and decides that he wants to be feared, dangerous, and powerful.

In many ways, AURYN, despite its magical and helpful purpose, begins to greatly resemble the One Ring of Tolkien’s works, gradually destroying every vestige of Bastian’s goodness just as Tolkien’s Ring erodes the character and sanity of its bearers. Ende makes this dynamic very clear when Atreyu tells Bastian that “the whole trouble is the way the Childlike Empress’s amulet affects you” (269), for the warrior notes that “with AURYN’s power you’re losing yourself and forgetting where you want to go” (269). Despite Atreyu’s pleas to remove AURYN, Bastian continues to wear the emblem and use its power to grant his wishes, thus demonstrating the truth of the old adage that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Bastian’s loss of memory and ongoing degeneration are further echoed by the nature of the characters that he meets and aligns himself with as he nears the Tower. For example, the “hollow shells of armor” (276) that he battles at Horok Castle warn of Bastian’s increasing hollowness and loss of self. Likewise, his friendship with the sorceress Xayide is based on her belief that when Bastian fully loses himself, she will be able to control him. As she tells Bastian, the empty suits of armor move and fight because her will makes it so, for she holds the power to “control anything that’s empty” (286). The invisible belt she gives to Bastian also strips Bastian of a physical identity, further foreshadowing the human boy’s slide into a type of nothingness. Again, as is characteristic of Ende’s storytelling, this dynamic also serves as a direct philosophical commentary upon the nature of power in the real world, for those who have no solid sense of their own identity and purpose are most easily manipulated by the ever-present elements of propaganda and control in human society.

As Bastian loses his memories, his struggle with Atreyu accordingly intensifies, for the novel’s original hero comes to embody all that is good and proper in Fantastica, thus once again serving as a foil to Bastian’s questionable actions and ever-darkening agenda. This dynamic comes to a head when, upon discovering that Atreyu and Falkor mean to take AURYN, Bastian has his former friends arrested and publicly banishes the pair. His actions, interpreted by Xayide as a sign that he has “stopped caring for anything” (307), again highlight the deterioration of Bastian’s mind and character. In short, this human child who initially empathized with Atreyu and worried about Fantastica loses his ability to love. Bastian’s near-fatal wounding of Atreyu is the culmination of the boys’ fight, and in their final battle, the two characters’ attributes are juxtaposed. While Bastian is willing to inflict physical harm upon Atreyu and fights in order to rule Fantastica, Atreyu fights “not for himself, but for his friend, whom he [is] trying to save by defeating him” (314).