51 pages • 1 hour read
Michael Ende, Transl. Ralph ManheimThe Neverending Story
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1979A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 23-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 23 Summary: “The City of the Old Emperors”
While searching for Atreyu, Bastian, whose metal horse has disintegrated, enters a city designed without any logical planning. There, he encounters human people wearing objects as clothing and pushing handcarts. A monkey named Argax explains that this is the City of Old Emperors, populated by humans who either were or wanted to be rulers of Fantastica but used all their wishes and lost their memories. As a result, these people cannot find their way back to the human world and are stuck forever in Fantastica in a state of confusion. Fearful of ending up in the city, Bastian asks the monkey what he must do to avoid a similar fate. Argax tells him to find a wish that will return him to his own world. Leaving the City of Old Emperors, Bastian decides that instead of returning to Xayide or seeking out Atreyu, he just wants to find a way back home.
Longing to belong to a community, Bastian next enters a city on the coast of the Sea of Mist. The people inhabiting the city all look alike, and their homes and clothing are made of wicker. Learning that a group of sailors will be heading to sea, Bastian requests and is granted passage. Onboard, Bastian observes the communal nature of the sailors, who use their joined thoughts to power the ship. However, when one sailor falls overboard, the others do not grieve the loss of one of their own and carry on as if nothing happened, and Bastian realizes that these people do not care for the individual—only the community. This thought causes him to desire to be loved for himself rather than as part of a group. When the ship docks, Bastian leaves, heading into a garden.
Chapter 24 Summary: “Dame Eyola”
After Bastian left the destroyed Ivory Tower, Xayide followed him. Supposing that Bastian would never return, Xayide lost her beliefs and was trampled to death by the hollow armor that she had once controlled. Meanwhile, in the garden, Bastian discovers a house that slowly shifts its appearance and is called the House of Change. An elderly plant-woman named Dame Eyola welcomes Bastian, providing him with fresh fruits and a comfortable bed. Motherly and wise, Dame Eyola explains that Bastian needs to discover what he truly wants in order to return home. She also tells him of the Water of Life, a secret fountain that he needs to find. During his stay, Bastian comes to realize that his longing to be loved has been fulfilled and that what he wants now is “to be capable of loving” (348). Once he recognizes this longing, Bastian is ready to leave. After saying goodbye to Dame Eyola, who has withered like a plant in the winter, Bastian walks out into the snow.
Chapter 25 Summary: “The Picture Mine”
Bastian meets Yor, the blind miner, and is welcomed to his hut. Yor explains that he works in a picture mine deep underground. The pictures he searches for are the forgotten dreams of human beings. Yor tells Bastian to find one picture that will guide him to the Water of Life. After days of working carefully and silently in the mine, Bastian finds a picture of “a man wearing a white smock and holding a plaster cast in one hand” (358). This picture touches Bastian and causes him to forget his own name. Now just a boy without a name, Bastian leaves Yor’s hut and goes in search of the Water of Life. However, the Shlamoofs impede his progress and cause him to drop the picture in the snow, where it shatters. Through his tears, Bastian sees Atreyu and Falkor.
Chapter 26 Summary: “The Water of Life”
Upon seeing Atreyu, Bastian removes AURYN and places it at the feet of his friend. Instantly, the amulet glows with life, and the two snakes that decorate it become the guardians of the Water of Life. The fountain speaks to the group, and Falkor translates. It asks their names, but Bastian, who no longer remembers who he is, cannot answer. Instead, Atreyu replies on his behalf, and Bastian is allowed to enter the waters. At this moment, Bastian reverts to his true self and finds that “he [is] now the very person he wanted to be” (368). Filled with joy, Bastian also knows that he is able to love others. Bastian says goodbye to his friends and is allowed to return to the human world once Atreyu promises to finish all the stories that Bastian began to tell in Fantastica.
Back in his own dimension, Bastian finds himself in the school attic but realizes that the book he was reading has disappeared. He runs home and throws himself into his father’s arms. His father listens understandingly to Bastian’s stories of his adventures and promises that from that moment on, their relationship will change for the better. Bastian also returns to the bookshop to tell Mr. Coreander that not only did he steal his book, but he also lost it. At first, Coreander tells Bastian that he never had such a book, but then he asks Bastian to tell him the story. Coreander believes Bastian and explains that he, too, has been to Fantastica. The two agree to exchange stories at a later date, and after Bastian leaves, Coreander suggests that Bastian “will show many others the way to Fantastica” (377).
Chapters 23-26 Analysis
In this final section of the novel, Bastian’s quest to recover himself and learn what he truly wants is completed. His redemption paradoxically requires him to lose all memories of himself, even his name. However, although this final stage of Bastian’s journey strips him of selfhood, it also provides him with the answer to his deepest desires—to be loved and to return that love. The process of discovering his final wish and learning about himself involves a number of steps, each of which must be overcome before the boy can return home and become his true self.
After his tour of the City of the Old Emperors, Bastian, confronted with the possibility that a stay in Fantastica could signal a future devoid of memory and purpose, realizes that “he wanted to find the way back to the human world” (328). Armed with only a few remaining wishes whose manifestation he cannot control, Bastian allows himself to be led by these wishes, which teach him about the type of world he wants to live in and the type of person he wants to be. First, therefore, Bastian “yearn[s] to belong to some sort of community […] not as a master or victor […] but merely as one among many” (329). This desire serves as a direct contradiction to his earlier desire to rule the world and control all the beings in Fantastica. However, simply being part of a community is not enough to allow him to regain his lost humanity, for he discovers that the Yskalnari’s version of community negates the value of the individual. Thus, he determines that he “want[s] to be an individual, a someone, not just one among others” (333-34).
Bastian’s understanding of himself as part of a group and as an individual leads to his next wish—to be loved for who he truly is, and accordingly, he finds such love in the house of Dame Eyola, who reminds him of his mother and cares for him as though he is her own child. Receiving this unconditional and plentiful love also allows Bastian to discover his greatest wish: “the longing to be capable of loving” (348). Finally, in the picture mine of Yor, Bastian finds an image that moves him and allows him (at least subconsciously) to understand whom he should love—his father.
The Water of Life, which facilitates Bastian’s return to the human world, symbolizes both baptism and rebirth. The name of the fountain itself echoes biblical statements about Christ being the “living water” to quench the spiritual hunger of humans, but more than that, Bastian’s entry into the water also allows him to experience a spiritual type of joy that stays with him throughout his life. Bastian’s entry into these waters thus symbolizes a regeneration, as the narration states that after he drinks from the fountain, “he [is] newborn” (368). Later, when Bastian sees his father cry, he interprets these tears as proof that his father also has the Water of Life. For Bastian, his father also experiences a rebirth, which is exemplified through a smile that “was the happiest smile Bastian had ever seen on his face” (373). In the end, not only is Bastian redeemed, but his father and their familial connection is restored as well. Thus, Bastian’s adventures in Fantastica culminate in the healing of his family’s grief after his mother’s death, and Ende uses the story’s conclusion to prove once again that imagination has a direct impact on the nature of the real world.
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