Shadow Spinner Characters

“Often in the old tales, the humblest creatures turn out to be more powerful than you ever

would expect.” (pg.169) In the novel Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher, there are three

characters who are humble, unfavorable and weak in the beginning, yet develop into most

significant, favorable and powerful characters by facing hardships throughout the novel. Marjan

is a protagonist and crippled orphan storyteller. She evolves from feeble and unfavorable girl to

the most significant heroine of the story who faces her fears and challenges. Dunyazad is

another character who develops into brave and devoted person to save her sister, Shaharazad.

Lastly, Zaynab is a pigeon keeper who turns out to be cleaver and favorable character
“What’s wrong with your foot? They looked at me as if I

were some outlandish creature.” (Pg. 6) People often treated her differently and teased her as

she is nothing but a crippled person because of her outside appearance. She is also considered as

bad luck and useless due to her maimed foot. However, as she works with Shahrazad, she

becomes a courageous, and useful character who saves both of Shahrazad’s and her life. “Like

in stories, where you could set off on an adventure and come to a land where having a crippled

foot or being born poor or woman was so obstacle to living out your dreams.” (Pg. 217) At the

end of the novel, she overcomes her fear of Sultan and even faces him to tell him the story that

teaches him a lesson that saves her life. It clearly shows how she changed from being poor and

handicapped coward to a brave girl by learning to overcome her fear and adversities.

Like Marjan, Dunyazad also develops into a brave and loyal character throughout the

story to save her sister, Shahrazad ‘s life. She is portrayed as a sister who has no power to

help Shahrazad and always lives in fear of her sister getting killed. “She waited, then