Artemis Fowl

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2001

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 2

Chapters 3-4

Chapters 5-6

Chapters 7-8

Chapter 9-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Caring for One’s Family and People

Artemis Fowl’s motivation for obtaining gold by kidnapping Holly Short is based in a desire to help his family, having vowed “to restore the family’s fortune. And he would do it in his own unique fashion” (29). His mother closes herself off to the world after his father’s disappearance, prompting Artemis to assume an adult role within the household. Whenever he is in doubt, Artemis reorients his path forward with the goal of caring for his family financially, and he is willing to go to any ends to achieve it.

However, Artemis also is careful to hide his emotions and feelings for his family members from those around him, particularly Butler, worried that they “could be perceived as weakness” (260). Butler himself trusts that Artemis has his best interests at heart, but this belief is pushed to its limits when Artemis sedates Juliet, Butler’s sister. For the first time, “Artemis realize[s] he’d been given an order” when Butler demands an explanation, revealing that Artemis pushed Butler’s trust too far and that, in doing so, causes his bodyguard to question him (271).

With Artemis’s desire to restore the family fortune, the foundation for his sense of caring is established. His caretaking tendencies then grow and change as the novel progresses. Artemis’s decision to ask Holly to heal his mother demonstrates that his concern for his family’s health and well-being tops his desire to attain wealth. He ensures Angeline’s safety both from the time stop—theorizing that her medicine will take her to safety by making her fall asleep—and going forward by giving up half of the ransom to heal her. Likewise, it is always clear that Artemis’s father looms like a ghost in his mind, and Artemis is ready to welcome him home. He himself even questions, “What was he becoming? His father was the priority here, not some moneymaking scheme” (115). This thought demonstrates how Artemis is caught between his ability to execute “dastardly acts” and his desire to restore his family to greatness, both physically (with his mother’s health) and financially.

For the fairies, the existence of the Lower Elements Police is entirely aimed at ensuring their continued existence, and the decisions that Commander Root and Captain Short make convey how far the fairies must go in order to preserve their society. The distinction between Commander Root and Cudgeon is clear in that Root won’t give up on another fairy (prioritizing Holly’s safety over all else) while Cudgeon does not care. The removal of Cudgeon from command demonstrates how the way of the Lower Elements Police is not to even sacrifice one magical creature, which is also emphasized in Holly’s desire to protect the troll even after it nearly killed her in Fowl Manor. Even though the LEP “lose” because Artemis outsmarts them and attains the gold, they achieve a victory in ensuring Holly’s safety from a great threat: humanity.

Destruction Resulting from Human Greed

The story of Artemis Fowl’s kidnapping of Holly Short illustrates human greed and the resulting destruction both on a micro level (through Artemis’s interactions with Short) and on a macro level (through the larger concern for environment). By offering this two-level perspective, the author extends the impact of human greed and destruction beyond the story itself, with the possible intent of encouraging readers toward action in response.

Determined to return the Fowl name to its former glory, Artemis’s first thought when he discovers the existence of fairies is not simply awe at their existence. Instead, he prepares to “take full advantage,” having a “childlike belief in magic, tempered by an adult determination to exploit it” (19). His greed drives his actions, and it steers him throughout the novel in a way not entirely within his control. Even Artemis wonders, “How far was he prepared to go for this gold? He didn’t know and wouldn’t until the time came” (121). Ultimately, he gives up a portion of his prize for his mother, avoiding potential destruction and demonstrating that he holds certain values above money.

To the fairies, Artemis symbolizes the embodiment of human greed, as he is willing to take advantage of their rules in order to exploit them. He utilizes every possible element and custom in the Book to get the gold, especially in requiring that Holly not leave the house. For fairies, pushed underground by humanity, it is a reminder that the triumph of the human race on the surface came at the cost of the fairies’ near destruction, a fact symbolized by Artemis’s theft of the gold. Due to his avarice, he becomes associated with a “Spanish Inquisition, here-comes-the-Hindenburg bad kind of history” (41). Artemis might be intelligent and capable, but to fairies, he is just another example of human greed and consequent destruction.

Moreover, parts of the story told from Holly’s and Root’s perspective highlight more widespread and environmental consequences of destruction by humans, as when Holly spots the effects of pollution on dolphins, thinking, “Mud People had a lot to answer for” (68). Especially when juxtaposed with imagery of Ireland as “[t]he most magical place on the planet,” the author emphasizes that the beauty of the planet is at risk thanks to humans’ treatment of it (68).

Root makes a similar point when alluding to the possibility that Fowl Manor is booby-trapped: “The idea of a Bouncing Betty anti-personnel mine exploding at head height was enough to dispel any nonchalance in the troops. No one built weapons of cruelty like the Mud Men” (264). Even though the fairies themselves use weapons, humankind’s potential for causing destruction and disregard for the planet shock them.

The Blending of Science and Magic

The novel depicts a clear conflict between science and magic. Artemis and Commander Root represent the two sides of this opposition. Root, a fairy, symbolizes magic while Artemis represents science. Root represents an interesting perspective on the conflict, as he sees the impact of science and scientific progress as “taking the magic out of everything” (94).

Initially the two forces seem evenly matched. If Artemis is able to extort the LEP, science wins. If the fairies are able to rescue Holly and keep their gold, magic does. However, because of Holly and Butler—essentially go-betweens on either side once Holly regains her magic—the two opposing forces come to blend together.

Artemis uses technology to outsmart the fairies through most of the novel, and he uses human means to exit the time stop and avoid the biological bomb that would kill him and his friends. This forces Root to utilize what skills he can, considering that he cannot enter Fowl Manor without losing his magic. Instead, he relies on another magical being in Mulch Diggums.

A key turning point occurs when Holly regains her magic and ultimately uses it to save Butler when science could not. While each is working against the other’s side, their empathy toward opponents grows. Butler begins to question the kidnapping of the fairy, and Artemis knows that “To a man of honor like Butler, this was almost more than he could bear” (244). Likewise, Holly feels empathy for Juliet, whom she sees as innocent in the entire affair; when Root calls Juliet a “casualty,” Holly becomes furious, telling him, “How you can you say that? A life is a life” (259). Neither can fully stop the leader of the other side, but their empathy symbolizes the blending of magic and science.

In the end, Artemis resorts to the most childlike question for Holly: “What would I have to do to buy a wish?” (256). By doing so, the side of science is willing to concede to the superior usefulness of magic, as Artemis applies a magical solution to a problem he cannot solve with his usual scientific, technological, and “dastardly” means. He asks Holly to use her magic to heal his mother, not fully believing in its potential until he sees it with his own eyes. Artemis can only triumph and save his mother when he admits to the limits of his own abilities and the limits of science.