Will

Character Analysis

You're My Antihero

In literary terms, Will is an antihero. He doesn't have the typical hero qualities—no flowing locks (that we know of) or grand gestures with this guy—and instead Will's main gig is self-bashing. He tends to fear the worst, to think of the world as a bummer, and to consider himself a major loser. But since we root for him anyway (he's the main character, after all, and he's on quite the personal journey), there's still something heroic about him. Hence, Will's antihero status.

In his mind, Will is a weak person slipping into "near nothingness…not a body not a kite but a massive inflatable parade character" (1101). It doesn't help that his school is known as Hopeless High (520) by locals, nor that he believes he's one of the "dead-enders" (515).

But despite his Debbie Downer ways, Will is still a dynamic character who goes through some good old transformation, even experiencing a kind of rebirth, though not without an inner struggle and a little mind-losing along the way.

Where There's a Will, There's a Way… Right?

Okay, so Will is still traumatized by the death of his parents a year after the event—he just can't get over what looks to have been a murder-suicide disguised as an accident. In his defense, that'd be a doozy to stomach. So Will is a young man disillusioned with life, sliding back and forth between total cynicism and the remote chance that things might get better.

Since the story is narrated through Will's harsh and self-negating inner dialogue, we see and hear the bummer cloud that follows him everywhere—but we also know that he hasn't lost all hope in humanity. How do we know Will hasn't lost all hope? Funny you should ask, because one of the main ways we know is by just how much questioning he does. Questions, after all, indicate uncertainty, and in Will's case, this indicates uncertainty that he's right in writing off the world. Here's a sampling of some of the questions Will wanders to inside his head:

• Do you think it means something? Does it have to mean something? (105-106)
• What are you doing? What's so wrong about that? (260)
• Is something there, even if you're unaware? (282)
• You don't want to lose this, do you? […] Does anything matter? (365) 
• Do you think it is your fault? (534) 
• Why can't we do better than this? (547)
• Why are you here? (1197)

Are they generally dark? You betcha. But so is Will—and what these questions let us know is that he hasn't fully committed to his outlook on life. He, if you will, calls it into question time and again.

When Will gathers the courage to address his questions to someone other than himself, change starts to look possible. Though Angela doesn't exactly run to him with open arms when Will asks is she would miss him if he disappeared (1214), it does seem like Will is entertaining the idea that someone actually would—the idea that he is miss-able.

He's a Survivor

To those around him, Will appears to be suicidal. His grandparents worry about him, Angela checks up on him when he misses school, and in fairness, he does seem to have a bit of "To be, or not to be" running through his obsessive thoughts and questions. But does Will want to die? Or does he want to change? That is the question.

Will is lost. If he knew how to move on and get through the tragedy that still haunts him, he would, but it seems like he doesn't know how. With people tip-toeing around him, treating him like a fragile little egg that's about to go crashing onto the floor, Will isn't feeling very brave or heroic. Some of this comes from him, but it's reinforced by the way people interact with him.

It takes a few confrontations with a few important people—namely Angela, Pops, and the villains who try to ruin him—to bring out Will's inner warrior. But once he realizes that getting help from other people is okay, and that everyone needs a little help from their friends once in awhile, Will is ready to change and to grow. It is a heroic finish, and in some ways all the more so because the person he is saving is someone he's been reluctant to value all along: himself.