The Phantom Tollbooth

“‘It seems to me that almost everything is a waste of time,’ he remarked one day as he walked dejectedly home from school. ‘I can’t see the point in learning to solve useless problems, or subtracting turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February.’ And, since no one bothered to explain otherwise, he regarded the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste of time of all.”

Young Milo is depressed: Everything seems meaningless. He has no purpose, nothing to yearn for except an end to boredom. This is his great need; he’s ripe for any adventure that might come his way.

“Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.”

The Whether Man is the first person Milo meets on his strange journey. This man is completely unwilling to make up his mind; instead, to be safe, he predicts that anything might occur. Technically, this is true, but it’s useless. It’s the first of many things Milo will hear that sound wise but lack rhyme or reason.

“‘I guess I just wasn’t thinking,’ said Milo. ‘PRECISELY,’ shouted the dog as his alarm went off again. ‘Now you know what you must do.’ ‘I’m afraid I don’t,’ admitted Milo, feeling quite stupid. ‘Well,’ continued the watchdog impatiently, ‘since you got here by not thinking, it seems reasonable to expect that, in order to get out, you must start thinking.’”

The watchdog—his body a giant alarm clock—reprimands Milo for having a lazy mind. Milo learns that to get out of a bad situation, especially one entered into through thoughtlessness, a person needs to think of a way out. It’s Milo’s first lesson in a land that will teach him many things about how to use his mind.