Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow

The clever, taciturn, and fatalistic vampire Baz Pitch is Simon’s rival, eventual love interest, and another of the novel’s narrators. Baz’s name is a joke—it is so insistently dark and macabre that it includes references to tyrants, grimness, the Brothers Grimm and their famously violent collection of fairy tales, and pitch blackness or tar. This overkill is a parody of the similarly overwrought name Draco Malfoy (which contains dragon and “mal,” the prefix that means “bad”). Notably, Baz goes by the only one of his names that doesn’t have an edgy connotation, hinting that his many evil-sounding names belie his true nature.

Early in the novel, Simon describes Baz as tall and pale with “[b]lack hair swept back from his forehead” and “[l]ips curled up in a sneer” (150). The handsome vampire often wears this derisive expression when he taunts Simon with his biting wit. For instance during their fifth year at Watford, when Simon obsessively searched for evidence that Baz is a vampire without any idea of what to do once he obtained that proof, Baz called him “the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen” (106).

Baz uses his intellect for more than verbal attacks on his rival. He is the first character to realize that Simon is causing the magical dead zones, and he graduates from Watford at the top of his class. For all his braininess, however, Baz doesn’t think he can outsmart fate. He spends much of the novel convinced that the war between the Mage and the Old Families will force Simon to kill him. Baz’s vampirism reinforces this bleak perspective. Most mages, including his late mother, consider vampires evil monsters and would kill him if given the chance. Because of his fatalism, the taciturn Baz is accustomed to hiding his vampirism and his true feelings, especially his love for Simon, beneath a suave and secretive exterior.

Baz’s dynamic growth develops the themes of Discovering Love and Identity and Fate Versus Free Will. Through his evolving relationship with Simon, Baz learns to defy destiny and accept himself. He starts the novel as Simon’s rival, but the apparition of his mother’s ghost leads the boys to become reluctant allies. After the search for Natasha Pitch’s killer hits a dead end, Simon prevents a despairing Baz from immolating himself and reciprocates his feelings with a life-altering kiss. Simon not only saves Baz’s life, but also helps him realize that he deserves to live. His insistence that Baz isn’t a villain or a monster helps Baz to overcome his guilt and self-loathing. In the Epilogue, Baz shows that he’s achieved self-acceptance by visiting his mother’s tomb and telling her that he’s “going to carry on” as a vampire (501). Baz plays an important role in the novel’s resolution by averting a civil war between the Mage’s allies and the Old Families and by helping Simon adjust to his new life without magic. Through Baz’s character arc from the Chosen One’s sworn foe to the love of Simon’s life, Rowell shows that free will and love conquer fate.

Penny Bunce is Simon’s intelligent, rebellious, and protective best friend and another of the novel’s narrators. Penny’s name is a little more obscure than those of the novel’s other characters, but the word “bunce” means a stroke of unexpected luck and evokes the positive sounding words “bun” and “bounce.”

When Penny and Simon first meet at age 11, she is “a chubby little girl with light brown skin and bright red hair. She was wearing pointy spectacles, the kind you’d wear if you were going as a witch to a fancy dress party” (12). Penny’s academic rank at Watford is second only to Baz’s, and even he is relieved and grateful to have the brilliant witch’s help with finding his mother's murderer. She deduces that the person who hired the numpties to kidnap Baz is the same person who sent the vampires that killed his mother. As her willingness to help Baz indicates, Penny is a rebellious spirit who defies the Mage’s dogmatic rules. She routinely sneaks into Simon’s room and keeps a cell phone on campus in direct violation of school protocol. Indeed, she and Baz agree on a number of issues, even though he’s from one of the reviled Old Families, while “half her opinions would get her thrown in a dungeon if her name were Pitch instead of Bunce” (247).

Penny’s main motivation for defying the Mage is her desire to protect Simon, but this conflicts with her belief in Simon’s Chosen One status. At the start of the novel, she longs to hide her best friend far away from the magical world and its wars, but she doesn’t because of her conviction that he is “the only one who could make a difference here” (33). Instead, she stands and fights at his side.

The static Penny advances the plot through her steadfast dedication to Simon. Penny offers Simon tireless friendship and ensures that he doesn’t have to face his daunting destiny alone. Her skills complement his, making her an invaluable ally. For example, when the Humdrum abducted her and Simon in their seventh year at Watford, she demonstrated her quick thinking by hurling the Humdrum’s rubber ball, a distraction that allowed Simon to use his physical and magical strength to bring them both to safety. Likewise, during the search for Natasha Pitch’s killer, Penny’s intelligence, research skills, and willingness to defy the Mage’s teachings make her a formidable ally for Baz as well. In the end, Penny achieves her goal of protecting Simon by accidentally killing the Mage, who has been using Simon all along.

The elegant, lonely, and defiant Agatha Wellbelove is Simon’s initial love interest, another first-person narrator, and one of the novel’s most important secondary characters. Agatha’s name is just as on the nose as Baz’s: She spends the novel fighting against being pigeonholed as Simon’s romantic trophy, a destiny that is seemingly written into her very identity, as her last name is literally “be love."

Agatha is “beautiful” and “graceful” with long “milky gold hair” (57). Agatha’s dazzling appearance draws Simon because she looks like the picture-perfect love interest for the Chosen One. In actuality, the teenagers’ personalities and desires do not complement one another’s. Agatha hails from a wealthy family and competes in equestrian events. Simon feels awkward whenever they discuss her hobby, considering it “just one more thing [he’ll] never get right. All that posh crap” (72). While Simon feels wrong-footed when he ventures into Agatha’s elegant world, she feels ill at ease with magic. She has no real friends at Watford apart from Simon and Penny; instead, her best friends are Normals, whom she only sees during the summer. Agatha dates a Normal boy before she starts seeing Simon, but she keeps the relationship a secret because she knows her parents would disapprove. Eventually, Agatha defies the familial and social pressures on her by breaking up with Simon.

Agatha’s internal conflict spurs her character development and advances the theme of Fate Versus Free Will. She ends her relationship with Simon because she rejects her assigned role in the Chosen One narrative. She refuses to allow destiny to reduce her to an object, “the prize at the end. The thing you get if you beat all the bosses” (141). The breakup is painful for Simon because he equates his future with a happily ever after with Agatha, but it gives both teenagers the opportunity to discover what they truly want for themselves. Agatha paves the way for Simon and Baz’s relationship by making Simon single and she defies her society’s expectations by moving to California and living as a Normal, thus finding happiness on her own terms and settling the question of Fate Versus Free Will.