FantasticLand

Brock is the primary antagonist in FantasticLand. He is in his twenties, which is older than most of the other employees. He played a pirate at the theme park, and after the hurricane, he became the leader of the Pirates. As the main antagonist of the story, Brock represents The Descent Into Tribalism and Violence in Lawless Environments, as he pushed the community into chaos and violence. Brock took advantage of the lack of authority and exploited fear, persuading others to forsake compassion for dominance. One of his primary rules was “[I]f you don’t fight back, you don’t deserve to breathe” (143). His presence looms large through all the interviews. His initial ruthless deed—executing a dying employee who fell from a roof—cemented his position and instigated the swift tribalism that followed.

Brock’s mentality is particularly unsettling because he views his actions as justified. In his jailhouse interview with journalist Adam Jakes, Brock remains smug and unapologetic, portraying himself as a pragmatic leader rather than a murderer. He rationalizes decisions, presenting himself as the lone individual who comprehends the grim truth of the situation. His manipulative charisma shines through in how he bent followers to his will and convinced them that total allegiance to the Pirates ensured survival. Even when confronted with evidence of misdeeds, he evades responsibility, reinforcing his untrustworthiness. Brock’s ability to warp reality highlights the novel’s exploration of fear’s capacity to distort and destroy social norms.

Despite keen intelligence and strategic cunning, Brock ultimately embodies the consequences of lawlessness. He rejected the notion of cooperation, believing that only the strongest should survive. He employed and encouraged brutality, including mutilation and executions, which solidified his image as the park’s most feared figure. However, his arrogance has blinded him. While he thrived during the chaos after Hurricane Sadie, he failed to recognize that the outside world would eventually intrude. By the time authorities intervened, Brock’s rule crumbled away, leaving him imprisoned and powerless.

Stuart was a maintenance man at FantasticLand, and he is much older than most of the other employees who stayed for Operation Rapture. He and the other maintenance people, who are also overwhelmingly older than most other employees involved in Operation Rapture, lived in the tunnels beneath the park after the hurricane. Their goal was to survive and avoid the violence and chaos, and they collaborated with the Robots and the Freaks. Unlike any other person in the story, Adam Jakes interviews Stuart twice, once over what happened when he left the shelter and the second time on the events of the Council of Pieces and blowing up the Exclamation Point. Stuart and the Mole Men did not participate in the violence, except when they were directly attacked.

Stuart was a pragmatic member of the underground Mole Men tribe, and he understood that hope alone would not help them survive. Unlike Charlie, the leader of the Mole Men, Stuart was skeptical of the peace meeting and did not want to participate. He was proven right, and Charlie was killed. After the horrific massacre at the Council of Pieces, Stuart rallied his people with a plan: destroy the towering Exclamation Point and gain the attention of the outside world. The Mole Men agreed that “someone would come, and if someone came and saw all the bodies hanging from the light posts and blood on the Golden Road, then help would come” (174). However well reasoned, his plan shows The Psychological Effects of Isolation and Disaster. Even though Stuart and the other Mole Men knew that the blast would kill people—including some of their own members—they still detonated the explosives beneath the Exclamation Point. This shows the terrible choices that even moral characters had to make in FantasticLand. The blast was much larger than the Mole Men expected, and while it did attract some attention, it also inflamed hostilities and incited even more panic and violence.

Before the hurricane, Clara was a cashier in FantasticLand, and she became a pragmatic leader of the ShopGirls tribe. As the violence escalated in the park, Clara ensured that her tribe remained strong, enforcing strict security measures and maintaining a clear goal: to protect the Golden Road and the shops on it. Clara recognized that purpose helps in a crisis. She refused to let her group be overtaken and proved her tactical mindset when she orchestrated the strike against the Pirates to destroy their cannon.

Clara’s philosophy on violence offers one distinct perspective on the events in the park. She bluntly states that the tribes would continue killing each other until none remained, demonstrating her grasp of the descent into tribalism and violence in lawless environments. Unlike the anonymous Shopgirl, Clara is clear-eyed about why the Deadpool soldier attacked them and what the ShopGirls would have done if he hadn’t attacked them first. Her calculated words suggest that she believes that survival outweighs morality. Clara’s leadership presents a moral paradox—she protected her tribe fiercely but also embraced the brutality necessary to ensure its survival. An anonymous ShopGirl summarizes this dichotomy well: “But if I went inward, Clara Ann, she went out. She was constantly alert, constantly yelling, constantly trying to keep everyone safe and not caring about who she upset in the process” (191). Her character exemplifies how chaos forces even rational leaders to adopt ruthless strategies, blurring the distinction between survival and cruelty.

Glenn, a man in his early forties, was a fire breather in the World’s Circus before the hurricane. He worked on makeup and set design at FantasticLand, and he used those skills to help craft a fearsome reputation for the Freaks, allowing them to avoid conflict with other tribes. This reinforces the theme of the role of storytelling and perspective in shaping truth, as he adapted to the growing tribalism by taking on an exaggerated persona and scaring even the Pirates. Glenn describes the Freak’s goal: “We were going to appear fearsome; we were going to puff our plumage as big as possible and hope no one noticed we were nothing but some artists and stoners” (154). While the other tribes believed that the Freaks were butchering people, they were actually peacefully smoking marijuana and relaxing. However, he understood the importance of instilling fear and formed alliances with the Robots and the Mole Men to spread rumors about the atrocities that the Freaks were committing.

Although the Freaks avoided being drawn into most of the violence, Glenn and his tribe witnessed many atrocities, including the Council of Pieces. Glenn remained relatively clear-eyed throughout the ordeal, and he can even admit that the Warthogs' association with the Freaks helped their fearsome reputation. He vehemently denies that they were Freaks, though, and he was later found innocent of any wrongdoing at FantasticLand. Despite the horror he endured, Glenn successfully reinvented himself after the rescue, leveraging his notoriety to enter the entertainment industry. His involvement in a monster makeup reality competition suggests that he turned his experiences into something productive, contrasting with survivors like Alice Barlow, who remain deeply traumatized.