The Neverending Story

Throughout both halves of the novel, magical gates and doors offer entrances that allow Atreyu and Bastian to complete their respective quests. On the literal level, the act of opening such portals leads the characters into new areas of Fantastica or the human world. On a metaphorical level, however, the doors and gates create connections between different worlds and signify new beginnings and challenges.

Accordingly, even Bastian’s own story in the “real world” begins when he encounters a door that advertises old books. His entry into Coreander’s book shop thus initiates his journey into Fantastica and signifies an opportunity for the boy to learn important philosophical lessons and transition into a more courageous individual who accepts his true self. Similarly, the emblem on the book he steals from the shop transforms into a gate made of two snakes that guard the Water of Life. When Atreyu eventually leads Bastian “through the terrible gate toward the fountain” (367), Bastian transforms into his true self and regains the ability to return to the human realm. These important entrances and exits therefore function as signs of Bastian’s ability to move between two worlds, begin anew, and encounter challenges that allow him to grow as a person.

While the beginning and ending of the novel both depict Bastian’s personal journey as an entrance through a door or portal into a new world, the boy also encounters a number of doors throughout his time in Fantastica itself. After leaving the Desert of Colors, for example, Bastian passes into a hexagonal room where “every second wall [has] a door in it” (205) with paintings of landscapes and creatures “who seemed to be half plant and half animal” (205). Each door in this Temple of a Thousand Doors opens to another room, and every room offers Bastian another chance to select a door. Only by making a true wish can Bastian escape this maze-like edifice of entrances and exits in which he finds himself, which implies that these doors represent the infinite nature of human choices. Just as in life, each choice blocks access to certain paths even as it makes new paths available: a dynamic that holds true whether the seeker is on a physical or a metaphorical journey.

Atreyu also encounters entry ways in his journey to find a cure for the Childlike Empress. The central gates he must pass through are the three magic gates leading to the Southern Oracle, which Engywook the gnome explains in depth. The first gate—the Great Riddle Gate—is guarded by sphinxes whose gaze will freeze creatures who venture into the entrance. However, if the sphinxes close their eyes, which Engywook attributes to “pure chance” (82), the traveler can pass. Engywook describes the second gate as a mirror that lets the traveler see their “innermost nature” (84) rather than their exterior appearance. Only by confronting one’s true self can an individual pass through the gate. Yet, when Atreyu looks into the mirror gate, he sees Bastian rather than himself, and thus the image of the human boy reveals how the two worlds are connected and positions Atreyu as a mere product of Bastian’s imagination. The final gate, the No-Key Gate, opens only for someone who “succeeds in forgetting all purpose, in wanting nothing at all” (85). As Atreyu’s passage through the Magic Mirror Gate causes him to forget his quest, the hero views this final gate only with curiosity rather than desire, and thus he is able to pass through to the Southern Oracle. Atreyu’s entry into the final gate mirrors Bastian’s entry into the Water of Life at the novel’s conclusion, indicating that for Ende, portals offer a chance to forget and to relearn. Entering another world (like the world of a book), allows the reader to paradoxically escape from real life and to embrace it in a fuller, more meaningful way.