A Spell for Chameleon (Piers Anthony)

analyzed by Rebekah Olson

1. What is the genre?

Global—Status > Sentimental

Secondary—Performance

2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for the genre?

Conventions

Strong Mentor Figure: In this story, this is the one convention that is arguably weak. The only consistent teacher throughout the tale is the setting of the land itself. It displays constantly over and over and over that Bink is never harmed by anything magical. But he never catches on to the consistent subtle pattern until someone else figures it out and tells him. It does, however, also constantly display things that make Bink think and contemplate, always trying to figure things out that the land has shown him, always learning a little something new from these experiential lessons.

Big Social Problem as Subtext: The social problem in this story is the biases that the people have. No matter that Bink is stronger, faster, smarter, and acts more noble than anyone else in his village, he is always considered and treated as a second-class citizen for his lack of an obvious magic talent. Even after Humfrey vouches that he does have one, he is still rejected, denied citizenship status, and exiled because he cannot display it.

Shapeshifters as Hypocrites: 

Sabrina – She always treated him well, even let him think she would marry him, as long as there was a question as to whether or not he had a magic talent. The moment he is called on the spot and is unable to display it, she turns away. The moment he returns in glory, favored by the new king she comes back as if expecting to pick up their relationship where she had left it off.

Iris – The Mistress of Illusion is introduced as a savior who rescues Bink from a sea monster drowning him. She takes him to her spectacular island where her palace is surrounded by regal gardens. There, she reveals to him that it’s all illusion, even the sea monster that ‘attacked’ Bink, and she shifts from savior to manipulator. When he refuses to take part in her deceptive schemes to take the throne, she shifts to attacker. She remains the attacker during the climax when he meets her again as he faces off with Trent and then goes to Humfrey for help to save Chameleon. Her last shift is during the last scene of the book, after she has married Trent during his coronation and become his queen, where she is the perfect picture of domestic docility and apologizes to Bink for being so difficult.

Trent – Portrayed as the Evil Magician, he is a man of high integrity who appears to have only the best interests of Xanth in mind. But when Bink refuses to just walk away and let him take the throne from the king, he shifts from ally to villain to square off and nearly kill Bink. At the last moment, after he accidentally wounds Chameleon instead, he shifts again back into ally and friend.

Chameleon – Chameleon’s body and intelligence shift with the moon phases due to her magic ‘talent’, a passive ability like Bink’s. This character is the epitome of shapeshifters. She is introduced first as stupid and beautiful Wynne, then as average Dee, and finally as brilliant and hideous Fanchon. Though she is never hypocritical in action, her very nature has so much irony baked into it that she must be included in this list.

               

The Herald, or Threshold Guardian is a fellow striver who sold out:

Chester – This centaur is a threshold guardian who stands in the way of Bink continuing down the road. Bink has to survive a physical conflict with him to get his ride with Chester’s girlfriend Cherie, who takes him on down the road both mentally and physically. Chester, in truth, should not have stood in the way, as Bink was legally on the King’s Road, but disobeys the rules regarding travelers.

Donald the Shade – Donald is a threshold guardian. Bink is stuck between a dragon and possible damnation. Donald also was on a quest while he was alive, striving to raise the status of his family from impoverished to financially stabile, but he failed and died. Bink must trust have enough mercy on the shade to allow it to save him, thus shifting him from a position of life-threatening danger to safety.

Iris – Bink has to get past the Gap to get to Humfrey, and to do so he has to get past Iris at the end of the Gap who wants high status, but lives alone because she has sold out her integrity so often that no one wants her around.

Humfrey – Bink has to get through three guardians just to get to Humfrey, who holds the only possible key that might save Bink from being exiled. Humfrey is a herald, who declares absolutely and without any doubt that Bink does indeed have a talent, a very powerful talent, so powerful it might qualify him for magician status instead of a mere citizen. However, Humfrey is also a herald who refuses to assist and withholds information from anyone who will not, or cannot, pay his fee.

A clear Point Of No Return/Truth Will Out moment, when the Protagonist knows they can never go back to the way things used to be: Everything Bink does to try and find his talent comes to naught at the middle of the story, when the senile old king refuses to read Humfrey’s voucher, refuses any healing water to clear his mind, and exiles Bink for being unable to openly display his magic talent. At that moment, Bink loses everything: his home, his parents, his fiancé, even his standing in the community (low as it is). Nothing is the same after this point.

Ironic Win-But-Lose or Lose-But-Win bittersweet ending: Bink spends half the novel trying to keep Trent from taking the throne. At the end, Trent proves himself worthy partly due to inspiration from Bink’s refusal to sellout, so the elders hand him the throne upon the death of the senile old king, which allows him to then protect Bink from anyone attacking him or treating him like a second class citizen.

Obligatory Scenes

An inciting opportunity or challenge: In the beginning hook scenes of the Beginning Hook portion of this book, Bink is shown at a disadvantage. Bullies and thugs beset him with magic which he cannot counter with magic of his own. He is the least significant person in his society, under threat of absolute rejection if he proves unable to perform a basic function everyone else can accomplish.

Protagonist leaves home to seek fortune: Bink leaves the safety of his home village and the protection of his parents to seek advice from a national mentor figure regarding his own special ability, which is required to attain citizen status.

Forced to adapt to a new environment, Protagonist relies on old habits and humiliates himself: Bink runs into a couple of centaurs. First, he humiliates himself by trying to fight with one, as he always did with the bullies at home. Then he humiliates himself in a faux pas grabbing the other in places he shouldn’t, according to human sensitivities. He also humiliates himself further with ignorance of the history of his own people when the second centaur educates him; a device used both to display the ‘new environment’ and to educate the reader while the characters are simply passing the time and distracting themselves from the centaur assisting Bink in some of his travels.

The Protagonist learns what the Antagonist's Object of Desire is and sets out to achieve it for himself: There are two antagonists in this book. Both of them want control of the throne of Xanth, when what they need is honesty and integrity. One of them is spoken of several times before meeting him. The other, Bink meets face to face in the crisis/climax sequence of the Beginning Hook section. While Bink doesn’t set out to achieve the throne himself, he does display and pursue honesty and integrity. He walks away from Sorceress Iris Mistress of Illusion, despite all her efforts, because none of it is real. Later, he stands up to Trent for the sake of integrity, fearing that Trent will use the throne for tyranny and shapeshift any opposers into helpless forms. 

Protagonist's initial strategy to outmaneuver Antagonist fails: In the cases of both the antagonists, Bink has failures. When he first walks away from Iris, and is safely past all her illusions, he realizes that he must return for his clothes that she tricked him into changing out of. When he encounters Trent, he fails to reason with the man and is thrown into a pit. Then when he and Chameleon steal Trent’s primary weapon, they are caught by the elements, unable to escape or survive, and he chases them down.

During an All Is Lost Moment, Protagonist realizes they must change their definition of success or risk betraying their morality: There are a few moments of All Is Lost. One is when Bink must decide whether to let a shade take him or be eaten by the Gap Dragon. He had always been taught to avoid shades, as the one driving force keeping them in existence is to complete unfulfilled life goals, even if the goal was evil. But when this shade displays honorable intent, Bink shifts out of his life-long habit of avoiding shades at all cost to allow the shade to take him. Another moment is the temptations of Sorceress Iris. She offers him everything he is striving for, through dishonest methods. If he goes through with his quest, the Good Magician Humfrey may tell him he has no talent and he will absolutely face exile. But to go with Iris’ plan, he would be completely dependent on her, and thus be forced to help her take the throne to be her puppet king while she becomes the de facto ruler as his queen, all dishonestly and at the price of his national loyalty. He decides success through dishonest illusions, and making himself slave to another, is neither successful nor moral. Another few moments come when he, Chameleon, and Trent first re-enter Xanth. Bink must decide whether to ally with Trent temporarily, or risk all of their lives. If it was just him, he would never have allied with someone labeled an Evil Magician like Trent. But with Chameleon’s life also at stake, he felt he had no right to condemn her to death as well.

The Core Event—Protagonist chooses to do what's necessary to attain status or reject the world that they strived to join: In the climax event of the novel, Bink faces off with Trent in a duel, even though he’s sure he won’t survive. He feels morally obligated to at least stand up for the throne rather than just allowing Trent to take it illegally in a coup. In his consideration, there is no point in becoming a citizen if the cost is to allow the destruction of the traditions and laws of the country.

Protagonist saves or loses him/herself based on their action in the Core Event: Bink’s hidden talent, the one that Humfrey swore he had, finally becomes apparent when Trent is unable to transform him into a helpless animal. Something always gets in the way at the last moment: Chameleon, a bug, even microbes. Bink’s talent is passive, preventing any harm to come to him from anything magical. While Trent wants the throne, what he needs is integrity. His experiences in exile, and the failures of his youth, have tempered him and left him with an absolute drive for being honest and seeking high moral ground. He displays it often in the course of the narrative, even though he never refutes the misdeeds of his youth that earned him the label Evil Magician. Therefore, when Bink stands up to him, and Trent must either relent or kill him by mundane means, the Evil Magician cannot bring himself to kill someone with such high integrity.

3. What is the point of view?

Third person, past tense close perspective.

4. What are the objects of desire?

External/Conscious:            
Bink – A magic talent that would provide citizenship in Xanth
Chameleon – A magic spell that will neutralize her passive magic talent
Trent – The throne of Xanth
Iris – Control of the throne of Xanth                  

Internal/Subconscious:
Bink – Wife and family
Chameleon – Safety through stabilization
Trent – Honesty and integrity

5. What is the controlling idea / theme?

Success is achieved when the underlying truth is not overlooked for the illusion on the surface.

6. What is the beginning hook, middle build and ending payoff?

Beginning Hook:When Bink leaves home to seek his magic talent, he is blocked by a gap guarded by a dragon. He decides to go around which brings him to face Iris, the Mistress of Illusion who wants to use him to deceptively take over the throne of Xanth. He declines this for the dishonest nature of the plan and walks unharmed through her illusory threats and dangers.

Middle Build:When Bink receives confirmation that he has a talent but is still unable to display it to his king, he is banished and goes to Mundania. There he meets Magician Trent who is preparing an invasion. Striving to thwart the invasion, he and Chameleon accidentally tumble back into Xanth with Trent. They must compromise enough to work together for survival purposes and are herded by the jungle to the legendary Castle Roogna.        

Ending Payoff:When they leave castle Roogna and fight through a wiggle swarm, they face Iris again when she threatens to expose their presence to the authorities unless one of them makes her queen. Trent accepts, and Bink must decide whether to accept his losses and walk away or stand and risk his life for the traditions and laws of the land that banished him. He stands, challenging Trent to a duel, through which he learns what his talent is when Trent cannot defeat him. Humbled by Bink’s integrity, desiring such for himself, Trent ceases hostilities and sends Bink to seek help for those wounded in the process. This exposes them to the authorities, who then hand the throne to Trent for the integrity he has gained, who can then give Bink protected status as a revered citizen and confidante of royalty.

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