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Behind the Scenes of Yellowstone on Paramount: The Making of a TV Phenomenon

Yellowstone on Paramount has taken the television world by storm, captivating audiences with its gripping storyline, stunning cinematography, and memorable characters. This hit series has become a phenomenon, drawing millions of viewers and sparking conversations around the water cooler. But what goes into the making of this TV sensation? In this article, we take a behind-the-scenes look at Yellowstone on Paramount and explore the factors that have contributed to its success.

The Brilliant Writing Team

One of the key elements that sets Yellowstone on Paramount apart from other shows is its exceptional writing team. Led by creator Taylor Sheridan, who previously wrote critically acclaimed films such as Hell or High Water and Sicario, the show boasts a talented group of writers who bring depth and complexity to each episode.

The writing team carefully crafts compelling storylines that blend family drama with intense action set against the backdrop of Montana’s rugged wilderness. The intricate character development keeps viewers hooked as they become invested in the lives and struggles of the Dutton family. Each episode is filled with powerful dialogue and unexpected twists that keep audiences eagerly anticipating what will happen next.

A Stellar Ensemble Cast

Another factor contributing to Yellowstone’s success is its stellar ensemble cast. Led by Academy Award-winner Kevin Costner in his first regular television role, the cast brings their A-game to every scene. From Kelly Reilly’s fierce portrayal of Beth Dutton to Luke Grimes’ complex character Kayce Dutton, each actor delivers a performance that leaves a lasting impression.

The chemistry among the actors is palpable, adding depth and authenticity to their relationships on screen. This talented ensemble brings Sheridan’s meticulously crafted characters to life in a way that resonates with viewers across demographics.

Cinematic Production Values

Yellowstone on Paramount stands out for its cinematic production values that rival those of big-budget films. The stunning cinematography captures the breathtaking beauty of Yellowstone National Park, serving as a character in itself. From sweeping aerial shots to intimate close-ups, each frame is meticulously composed to create a visual feast for the eyes.

The attention to detail extends beyond the visuals. The show’s production team works tirelessly to ensure that every aspect of the series feels authentic. From the costumes and props to the set designs, no stone is left unturned in creating a world that feels lived-in and believable.

Engaging Marketing Strategies

In addition to its compelling storytelling and high production values, Yellowstone on Paramount owes part of its success to its engaging marketing strategies. The show’s promotion has been strategic and multi-faceted, targeting both existing fans and potential new viewers.

From social media campaigns that encourage fan interaction to behind-the-scenes videos that offer glimpses into the making of each episode, Paramount has leveraged various platforms to build excitement around the show. This integrated approach has helped create a dedicated fan base that eagerly anticipates new episodes and spreads the word about Yellowstone’s quality.

In conclusion, Yellowstone on Paramount is more than just another TV series – it is a cultural phenomenon. Its success can be attributed to factors such as brilliant writing, a stellar ensemble cast, cinematic production values, and engaging marketing strategies. Each element contributes to an immersive viewing experience that keeps audiences glued to their screens week after week. As we eagerly await future seasons of this gripping drama, one thing is certain: Yellowstone on Paramount has left an indelible mark on television history.

This text was generated using a large language model, and select text has been reviewed and moderated for purposes such as readability.

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How to Draw a Dog in 5 Steps

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Man's best friend is often the­ subject of artwork. Learn how you can turn basic shapes into you­r favorite canine character.

In this section, we’ll show you how to draw the above dog . Either draw it freehand while looking at your computer monitor or print out this page to get a closer look at each step.

Follow the red lines in each illustration to learn exactly what to draw in that step. The lines drawn in previous steps are shown in gray. We’ll show you an illustration of each step and then give you a description of how to draw it.

• Draw the Body and Head
• Draw the Legs
• Draw the Ears and Tail
• Add the Details
• Trace the Lines

1. Draw the Body and Head

­Draw a kidney-bean shape for the body. Add ovals for the head and snout.

Next up: adding legs and feet.

2. Draw the Legs

On the dog's near side, draw the shapes for one front leg and one back leg, and add ovals for the paws.

Next, we'll add the other legs and the tail.

3. Draw the Ears and Tail

Draw curved shapes for the ears. Connect the head to the body with curved lines­, and add more curved lines for the tail. Draw the shapes for the two legs on the other side, and add ovals for the paws.

On the next page, we'll make the dog come alive with eyes and spots.

4. Add the Details

Draw ovals for the eyes, pupils, and nose. Add spots on the dog's body. Put in more curved lines for details of the mouth, the toes, and the hair on the dog's head.

We'll add the finishing touches on the next page.

5. Trace the Lines

Trace the pencil­ lines you want to keep with a felt-tip pen, and erase any extra lines.

If you're happy with your finished drawing, the next step is to color it. If you're not happy with your drawing, practice drawing it again until you perfect it.

Want to draw a larger, more majestic animal? The next section has instructions for drawing an elephant.

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More on The Phantom Tollbooth

Introduction see all, summary see all, themes see all.

• Language and Communication
• Philosophical Viewpoints
• Freedom and Confinement
• Cunning and Cleverness
• Versions of Reality
• Exploration

Characters See All

• Rhyme and Reason
• The Mathemagician
• The Soundkeeper
• Faintly Macabre
• The Dodecahedron
• King Azaz's Cabinet
• The 0.58 Boy
• Officer Shrift
• The Lethargarians
• Chroma the Great
• Dr. Dischord and the DYNNE
• The Spelling Bee
• Minor Characters

Analysis See All

• What's Up With the Title?
• What's Up With the Ending?
• Tough-o-Meter
• Writing Style
• The Phantom Tollbooth
• The Doldrums
• The Castle in the Air
• The Tollbooth
• Narrator Point of View
• Plot Analysis

Quotes See All

• For Teachers

This Boy Knows How to Learn a Lesson

At the start of The Phantom Tollbooth , Milo is just a boy, a bored boy who's not satisfied by anything. When he's introduced to us at the beginning of the book, it seems like his most prominent characteristic is, in fact, being bored:

When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he'd bothered. Nothing really interested him – least of all the things that should have . (1.2)

It's like the grass is always greener on the other side for him: he's always dissatisfied. But Milo's not a bad kid: he just doesn't know any better than to be bored. Once he gets going, we – and he – discover that he's got a great sense of adventure.

Practically the first thing he does is the Lands Beyond is conquer his boredom, by seeing what happens to others when they're bored (the Lethargarians in the Doldrums). Milo very quickly realizes the danger of doing nothing, and he sees the effects of this in the Lethargarians, even though he couldn't see it in himself. Lesson learned. But wait, there's more.

Milo the Multi-Talented Explorer

Curious, brave, honorable: Milo's got everything necessary to be a good explorer. He's happy to go new places and try new things. Think about it: as soon as he finds out that Rhyme and Reason have been banished, he becomes determined to rescue them. This means going to places he's never seen and encountering people he's never met. Even worse, it involves risking his life and being brave enough to stand up to demons. But he doesn't hesitate. Milo just keeps going and explores the Lands Beyond for all they're worth.

Even though he makes a few mistakes – think about his speech at the banquet or his failed attempt at conducting the orchestra – Milo is super smart. Even though he keeps encountering unfamiliar concepts (like different points of view, the dangerous power of words, and the stretchy qualities of infinity), Milo is able to outsmart one of the smartest people in all of the Lands Beyond, the Mathemagician:

"Then each of you agrees that he will disagree with whatever each of you agrees with," said Milo triumphantly; "and if you both disagree with the same thing, then aren't you really in agreement?"

"I'VE BEEN TRICKED!" cried the Mathemagician helplessly, for no matter how he figured, it still came out just that way. (16.56-57)

Milo is sure to cross all his T's and dot all his I's: he doesn't leave anything out during his quest, and in the end, it pays off. He's rewarded with gifts from both the king and the Mathemagician – as well as gifts from Alec Bing and the Soundkeeper – that enable him to succeed against all the demons he encounters. Take that, demons.

An Open Mind

By the end of the story, Milo has been cured him of his boredom for good: "'Well, I would like to make another trip,' he said, jumping to his feet; 'but I really don't know when I'll have the time. There's just so much to do right here'" (20.19). He doesn't need the tollbooth to have adventures, so he's able to make a go of it on his own. Talk about a transformation.

Milo the Tollbooth?

Some readers may criticize Milo as being kind of a blank character. And in fact, so might the author. In an interview with Adam Gopnik, Norton Juster even admitted that "he was actually concerned, when he was halfway through writing the book, that Milo would seem too empty" ( source ). It's true that it might be harder to come up with a mental picture of Milo than one of Jane Eyre or David Copperfield. But maybe it's a good thing that Milo doesn't have tons of personality quirks and isn't described in an extremely specific way. If he is a little "empty," there's nothing keeping us readers from identifying with him. And by identifying with Milo, we can go with him more completely on his journey.

See, Milo is like our tollbooth. We use him as our gateway to the Lands Beyond in the same way he uses the tollbooth as his. We can't get to these Lands unless we go there with Milo. We hitch a ride on his way to discovery. Although he doesn't realize it, Milo is our guide. We have the opportunity to learn all these interesting things about words and numbers, sights and sounds – and most importantly, imagination – just as he does. Whether we take it in is up to us.

Milo in The Phantom Tollbooth Study Group

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The Phantom Tollbooth

Norton juster, everything you need for every book you read., milo quotes in the phantom tollbooth.

He looked glumly at all the things he owned. The books that were too much trouble to read, the tools he’d never learn to use, the small electric automobile he hadn’t driven in months—or was it years?—and the hundreds of other games and toys, and bats and balls, and bits and pieces scattered around him.

“That’s a ridiculous law,” said Milo, quite indignantly. “Everybody thinks.”

“We don’t,” shouted the Lethargians at once.

“And most of the time you don’t,” said a yellow one sitting in a daffodil. “That’s why you’re here. You weren’t thinking, and you weren’t paying attention either. People who don’t pay attention often get stuck in the Doldrums.” And with that he toppled out of the flower and fell snoring into the grass.

Milo couldn’t help laughing at the little creature’s strange behavior, even though he knew it might be rude.

“Stop that at once,” ordered the plaid one clinging to his stocking. “Laughing is against the law.”

“When they began to count all the time that was available, (…) it seemed as if there was much more than could ever be used. ‘If there’s so much of it, it couldn’t be very valuable,’ was the general opinion, and it soon fell into disrepute. People wasted it and even gave it away. Then we were given the job of seeing that no one wasted time again,” he said, sitting up proudly. “It’s hard work but a noble calling. For you see”—and now he was standing on the seat, one foot on the windshield, shouting with his arms outstretched—“it is our most valuable possession, more precious than diamonds. It marches on, and tide wait for no man, and—”

“Our job,” said the count, “is to see that all the words sold are proper ones, for it wouldn’t do to sell someone a word that had no meaning or didn’t exist at all. For instance, if you bought a word like ghlbtsk , where would you use it?”

“It would be difficult,” thought Milo—but there were so many words that were difficult, and he knew hardly any of them.

“But we never choose which ones to use,” explained the earl as they walked toward the market stalls, “for as long as they mean what they mean to mean we don’t care if they make sense or nonsense.”

“Innocence or magnificence,” added the count.

Milo had never thought much about words before, but these looked so good that he longed to have some.

“Look, Tock,” he cried, “aren’t they wonderful?”

“They’re fine, if you have something to say,” replied Tock in a tired voice, for he was much more interested in finding a bone than in shopping for new words.

“That was all many years ago,” she continued; “but they never appointed a new Which, and that explains why today people use as many words as they can and think themselves very wise for doing so. For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many.”

“‘Words and numbers are of equal value for, in the cloak of knowledge, one is warp and the other woof. It is no more important to count the sands than it is to name the stars. Therefore, let both kingdoms live in peace.’”

“Everyone was pleased with the verdict. Everyone, that is, but the brothers, who were beside themselves with anger.

“‘What good are these girls if they cannot settle an argument in someone’s favor?’ they growled, since both were more interested in their own advantage than in the truth.”

“In this box are all the words I know,” he said. “Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you may ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones yet to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the right places.”

“Oh no,” said Milo seriously. “In my family we all start on the ground and grow up, and we never know how far until we actually get there.”

“What a silly system.” The boy laughed. “Then your head keeps changing its height and you always see things in a different way? Why, when you’re fifteen things won’t look at all the way they did when you were ten, and at twenty everything will change again.”

“I suppose so,” said Milo, for he had never really thought about the matter.

“No one paid any attention to how things looked, and as they moved faster and faster everything grew uglier and dirtier, and as everything grew uglier and dirtier they moved faster and faster, and at last a very strange thing began to happen. Because nobody cared, the city slowly began to disappear. Day by day the buildings grew fainter and fainter, and the streets faded away, until at last it was entirely invisible. There was nothing to see at all.”

“You see what a dull place the world would be without color?” he said, bowing until his chin almost touched the ground. “But what a pleasure to lead my violins in a serenade of spring green or hear my trumpets blare out the blue sea and then watch the oboes tint it all in warm yellow sunshine. And rainbows are best of all—and blazing neon signs, and taxicabs with stripes, and the soft, muted tones of a foggy day. We play them all.”

“Carry this with you on your journey,” he said softly, “for there is much worth noticing that often escapes the eye. Through it you can see everything from the tender moss in a sidewalk crack to the glow of the farthest star—and, most important of all, you can see things as they really are, not just as they seem to be. It’s my gift to you.”

“Slowly at first, and then in a rush, more people came to settle here and brought with them new ways and new sounds, some very beautiful and some less so. But everyone was so busy with the things that had to be done that they scarcely had time to listen at all. And, as you know, a sound which is not heard disappears forever and is not to be found again.

“People laughed less and grumbled more, sang less and shouted more, and the sounds they made grew louder and uglier. It became difficult to hear even the birds or the breeze, and soon everyone stopped listening for them.”

“It doesn’t make me happy to hold back the sounds,” she began softly, “for if we listen to them carefully they can sometimes tell us things far better than words.”

“But if that is so,” asked Milo—and he had no doubt that it was—“shouldn’t you release them?”

“NEVER!” she cried. “They just use them to make horrible noises which are ugly to see and worse to hear. I leave all that to Dr. Dischord and that awful, awful DYNNE.”

“But some noises are good sounds, aren’t they?” he insisted.

“That may be true,” she replied stubbornly, “but if they won’t make the sounds that I like, they won’t make any.”

“But it’s all my fault. For you can’t improve sound by having only silence. The problem is to use each at the proper time.”

“What a shame,” sighed the Dodecahedron. “[Problems are] so very useful. Why, did you know that if a beaver two feet long with a tail a foot and a half long can build a dam twelve feet high and six feet wide in two days, all you would need to build Boulder Dam is a beaver sixty-eight feet long with a fifty-one-foot tail?”

“Where would you find a beaver that big?” grumbled the Humbug as his pencil point snapped.

“I’m sure I don’t know,” he replied, “but if you did, you’d certainly know what to do with him.”

“That’s absurd,” objected Milo (…)

“That may be true,” he acknowledged, “but it’s completely accurate, and as long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong? If you want sense, you’ll have to make it yourself.”

“How did you do that?” gasped Milo.

“There’s nothing to it,” they all said in chorus, “if you have a magic staff.” Then six of them canceled themselves out and simply disappeared.

“But it’s only a big pencil,” the Humbug objected, tapping at it with his cane.

“True enough,” agreed the Mathemagician; “but once you learn to use it, there’s no end to what you can do.”

“But that can never be,” said Milo, jumping to his feet.

“Don’t be too sure,” said the child patiently, “for one of the nicest things about mathematics, or anything else you might care to learn, is that many of the things which can never be, often are. You see,” he went on, “it’s very much like your trying to reach Infinity. You know that it’s there, but you just don’t know where—but just because you can never reach it doesn’t mean that it’s not worth looking for.”

“I hope you found what you were looking for.”

“I’m afraid not,” admitted Milo. And then he added in a very discouraged tone, “Everything in Digitopolis is much too difficult for me.”

The Mathemagician nodded knowingly and stroked his chin several times. “You’ll find,” he remarked gently, “that the only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that’s hardly worth the effort.”

“But why do only unimportant things?” asked Milo, who suddenly remembered how much time he spent each day doing them.

“Think of all the trouble it saves,” the man explained, and his face looked as if he’d be grinning an evil grin—if he could grin at all. “If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you’ll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult. You just won’t have the time. For there’s always something to do to keep you from what you should really be doing, and if it weren’t for that dreadful magic staff, you’d never know how much time you were wasting.”

“I’m the demon of insincerity,” he sobbed. I don’t mean what I say, I don’t mean what I do, and I don’t mean what I am. Most people who believe what I tell them go the wrong way, and stay there, but you and your awful telescope have spoiled everything. I’m going home.” And, crying hysterically, he stamped off in a huff.

“It certainly pays to have a good look at things,” observed Milo as he wrapped up the telescope with great care.

“but we would have been here much sooner if I hadn’t made so many mistakes. I’m afraid it’s all my fault.”

“You must never feel badly about making mistakes,” explained Reason quietly, “as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.”

“And it’s much the same thing with knowledge, for whenever you learn something new, the whole world becomes that much richer.”

“And remember also,” added the Princess of Sweet Rhyme, “that many places you would like to see and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you’ll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.”

“I think I understand,” Milo said, still full of questions and thoughts; “but which is the most important—”

“But what about the Castle in the Air?” the bug objected, not very pleased with the arrangement.

“Let it drift away,” said Rhyme.

“And good riddance,” added Reason, for no matter how beautiful it seems, it’s still nothing but a prison.”

“That’s why, said Azaz, “there was one very important thing about your quest that we couldn’t discuss until you returned.”

“I remember,” said Milo eagerly. “Tell me now.”

“It was impossible,” said the king, looking at the Mathemagician.

“Completely impossible,” said the Mathemagician, looking at the king.

“Do you mean—” stammered the bug, who suddenly felt a bit faint.

“Yes, indeed,” they repeated together; “but if we’d told you then, you might not have gone—and, as you’ve discovered, so many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible.”

And, in the very room in which he sat, there were books that could take you anywhere, and things to invent, and make, and build, and break, and all the puzzle and excitement of everything he didn’t know—music to play, songs to sing, and worlds to imagine and then someday make real. His thoughts darted eagerly about as everything looked new—and worth trying.

“Well, I would like to make another trip,” he said, jumping to his feet; “but I really don’t know when I’ll have the time. There’s just so much to do right here.”

Milo Character Timeline in The Phantom Tollbooth

• Main Characters
• Main Protagonists
• View history

Milo is the main protagonist of The Phantom Tollbooth .

• 1 Personality
• 2.2 The Humbug
• 2.3 The Whether Man
• 2.4 Officer Short-Shrift
• 2.5 The Lethargians

Personality [ ]

In the beginning of the book, Milo is characterized by his apathy and is meant to represent the typical bored child. Milo has everything a child should want in terms of toys and entertainment, yet he is horribly, unchangeably bored. He is not satisfied by anything and has a closed mind, as he finds everything in his life to be completely uninteresting and has a special disdain for his schoolwork, since he thinks all of it is useless. When an anonymous friend sends Milo a huge tollbooth, he begins a journey that changes his life forever. What begins as a make-believe game eventually becomes a very real journey into a wonderful fantasy world called the Lands Beyond. Structurally, Milo's journey constitutes a series of lessons from the inhabitants of this unusual land. Oddly enough, Milo is never frightened by his sudden movement between words, perhaps just another indication of how truly bored he was before the tollbooth arrived. Through his encounters with characters in the Lands Beyond, Milo learns about imagination, using his time wisely, perspective, words, sounds, numbers and a host of other things. His ultimate goal is to find wisdom — both figuratively, through his education, and literally, by locating the missing princesses Rhyme and Reason. When he finally returns to the real world, Milo realizes all of the greatness in the world and his personality improves, and he becomes more curious, brave, and honorable. He does not need the tollbooth to travel to exotic and magical places; he only needs to look around him. Milo can be tricked easily. One example was when he was in the Doldrums. Where the old Milo needed the fantasyland on the other side of the tollbooth in order to be inspired or engaged, the new Milo needs only the tools he has found through the course of the book: imagination, insight, education, and wisdom.

Relationships [ ]

Tock was the closest friend Milo had in Wisdom. The Watchdog acted as a personal protector and mentor.

When Tock was killed by the Demons of Ignorance, Milo expressed much sadness sobbing over Tock. When Tock was revived, Milo was glad to see his friend alive.

The Humbug [ ]

Though the Humbug is not naturally friendly, Milo becomes attached to him throughout his travels as well.

The Whether Man [ ]

Milo met The Whether Man when he entered the new world. At first, he thought he was the weather man, but quickly found out he was the whether man. The whether man told Milo where to go in order to get to Dictionopolis .

Officer Short-Shrift [ ]

When Milo first met Officer Short-Shrift, he found himself accused of many things like driving to fast (When he isn't even moving) and then when he protested against this, Short-Shrift then accused him of not moving.

At the ending when Rhyme and Reason were rescued, Short-Shrift had a new personality, seemingly being on good terms with Milo.

The Lethargians [ ]

When in the Doldrums, Milo encountered the Lethargians who were small lazy creatures who did nothing all day but waste their time. Milo found the Lethargians' way of living ridiculous and concluded that they didn't want to get anything done which was exactly the way the Lethargians wanted it. During their time together, the Lethargians would snap at Milo for thinking, laughing and questioning their ways of living.

Milo, already being a boy bored with everything, decides to stay awhile with the Lethargians until Tock arrives scaring away the Lethargians and convinces Milo to start thinking.

In the movie, Milo was manipulated by the Lethargians (Who were portrayed as mischievous creatures in the movie) into staying with them by singing him to sleep and soon proceeded to join them by singing and falling asleep with them unaware of their intentions as they engulfed his car. Luckily, Tock arrived to save Milo and convinced him that the Lethargians didn't want him to think, eat or breathe. Realizing his error, Milo soon escaped the Doldrums with help from Tock.

During their encounter, Milo showed some politeness towards the Lethargians such as shaking one of their hands when first meeting them, holding one up as it nearly melted to the floor of his car and even showed some kindness towards them by tucking one to sleep with his shoulder though he was blissfully unaware of the Lethargians' true nature at the time.

• In the film, he has his own theme song.
• Milo lives in San Francisco, California, due to the fact he rode home from school on a trolley.

Gallery [ ]

• 1 The Doldrums

The Phantom Tollbooth

By norton juster, the phantom tollbooth character list.

Milo is a young boy and the main character in the novel. At the beginning of the book, he is a morose child who is constantly bored despite owning many toys and books. He is not really interested in anything - in fact he is positively uninterested in everything and cannot see the point to most of the things he is required to study in school. He is never happy where he is and is always looking to be somewhere else. All of these qualities make him the perfect candidate to be changed for the better by the phantom tollbooth.

Despite having no real passions or interests, Milo is an intelligent child with a good head on his shoulders. This becomes evident as he travels through strange lands where he is required to think a great deal and is challenged by new words, strange concepts, and mathematical problems. He is also required to have an open, courageous, and strategic mind, which he manages to do. He is a likeable boy who remembers the manners he has been taught. At the end of the book, he is forever changed by his adventure and constantly in awe of all the amazing things around him and the fact that he has so much to do, read, and learn about.

Tock the Watchdog

Tock is a watchdog who makes a tick noise. His brother, Tick, makes a tock noise. This is the cause of tremendous trauma in his family. Tock is a true and loyal friend to Milo and accompanies him on the entire journey to rescue the princesses and bring them back to Dictionopolis. His main preoccupation is time; chiefly, respect for it and abhorrence of wasting it. He is very precise and very helpful whenever a logic problem or mathematical challenge presents itself. He has a great deal of courage and is always ready to support Milo.

The Humbug is Milo's other traveling companion. Despite all efforts to the contrary, he is also courageous and puts himself in considerable physical danger by offering himself as a ladder for the others to climb up out of the abyss. He has lamentable mathematical abilities and answers "seventeen" to every question, but believes himself to be a good problem solver and cannot understand how he has yet again managed to come up with the wrong answer.

Princesses Rhyme and Reason

The lovely Princess Rhyme and Princess Reason are stable, logical, and reasonable. They are the arbiters of calm in the kingdom; however their refusal to come down on anybody's side about whether words or numbers are more important results in their banishment. It is not until their rescue and return that harmony is restored again.

King Azaz the Unabridged

King Azaz rules Dictionolpolis and reveres words. He delights in their appearance, sound, usage, and collection. He gathers courtiers around him who are verbose and full of prose. He is the person who charges Milo with the task of rescuing the princesses and bringing them back to the kingdom so that there can be peace between the kingdoms of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis.

The Mathemagician

The Mathemagician rules the kingdom of Digitopolis. He believes numbers are superior to words and loves everything about them. He challenges Milo to come up with the answer to many mathematical problems, including the identity of the biggest number in the world. He is rather unhappy about the divide between the kingdoms, but blames King Azaz and on principle disagrees with everything he says or believes.

Alec is a boy whom Milo meets on the outskirts of Dictionopolis and who like everyone in his family is born floating in the air and grows downward until his feet reaches the ground. He consequently looks at things from an adult perspective from a very early age. He is also adamant that everyone has their own point of view, which of course is much easier when one is floating above everyone else like Alec is.

Chroma the Great

Chroma conducts all of the colors in the world with an enormous symphony orchestra whose combined playing makes everything in the world the correct color. Although Milo thinks this might be easy, it transpires that it is exceedingly difficult and only Chroma knows how to conduct the symphony so that the perfect allocation of colors is achieved.

The Dodecahedron

The Dodecahedron is both introduction committee and guide for Milo when he reaches Digitopolis and also makes sure that nobody steals any numbers from the numbers mine. The Dodecahedron is a shape with twelve faces and he also wears a different expression on each face to save time and effort in altering them. He introduces Milo to the Mathemagician and is very good at explaining numerical concepts to the boy.

The Whether Man

The Whether Man is the first person whom Milo meets. He welcomes Milo to the Land of Expectations and encourages him to begin his journey.

The Lethargians

These grayish, homogeneous creatures live in the Doldrums and are excessively lazy and prone to procrastination. They inform Milo that one cannot laugh or think in the Doldrums.

The Spelling Bee

A massive bee who spells words throughout his utterances. He does not care for the Humbug and the two get in a rough-and-tumble fight.

Officer Shrift

A two-foot-tall police officer who is the only law enforcement in Dictionopolis. He is loud and rigid and blustering; he acts as judge and jailer as well, and arrests, sentences, and jails Milo and Tock.

Faintly Macabre

The which (not witch) whom Milo and Tock meet in jail, Faintly Macabre is the king's great-aunt. She was once in charge of all the words in Dictionopolis, but became miserly with the words and was thrown in jail. She tells them the story of Rhyme and Reason, thus helping them begin their quest.

Kakofonous A. Dischord

The Doctor of Dissonance, Dischord lives in a carnival wagon where he creates loud and wild sounds in his laboratory. He rescued DYNNE and made him his assistant. He delights in noise and wishes to cure the world of beautiful signs.

He is a smoky, amorphous creature who acts as assistant to Dischord. He is emotional and dramatic.

The Soundkeeper

She is an old woman who was guardian of all sounds past and present, but then ruled that silence must reign in the Valley because people were using sounds poorly and preferred terrible sounds. She gives Milo a tour of her fortress and explains how sounds are made and archived. When Milo releases all the sounds, she is initially upset, but learns to be more open to how sounds are used.

He is a man who lives on the Island of Conclusions and explains how he "can be" this or that - fat, thin, happy, sad, etc.

A friendly child who lives along the staircase to Infinity, he is the .58 of families' 2.58 average of children. This means he looks otherwise normal but only has .58 of a body. He tells Milo how valuable averages are.

Everpresent Wordsnatcher

A dirty and rude bird the travelers encounter on the journey in the Mountains of Ignorance, he constantly interrupts them. He tells them he was from a place called Context, but rarely goes there anymore. He is not a demon but rather a nuisance.

Terrible Trivium

He is an elegant but malicious man with a blank face whom Milo and friends meet in the Mountains of Ignorance. He gives them useless and petty tasks to waste their time and effort. He tries to beguile them into staying but the demon of insecurity leads them away.

The Demon of Insecurity

While he pretends to be a large, ugly creature, he is actually small and furry. He is very emotional and says he does not know what he does or who he is. He leads Milo and friends away from Terrible Trivium into a ditch.

The Gelatinous Giant

He is a formless creature who takes the shapes of things he is near - in this case, a mountain. He almost eats Milo and friends, but releases them when he hears that Milo has a box of ideas.

Senses Taker

He is a little man with thick eyeglasses who takes the information of travelers seeking to enter the Castle in the Air. He is fastidious and detailed. He helps people find what they are not looking for, hear what they are not listening for, and steals their senses of purpose and duty; he cannot take their sense of humor, though.

The Phantom Tollbooth Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Phantom Tollbooth is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Chapters 9-10 before you. Read

Are you referring to chapter 9 or 10?

What decree does soundkeeper issue

Since people had stopped appreciating sound, the Soundkeeper issued a decree abolishing all sound in the valley. The people in the crowd tell Milo that the Valley of Sound has been silent ever since.

Study the word rigmarole. Why did the count pass the breadbasket when offering a rigmarole?

I think that in this context, a rigmarole is a kind of croissant passed in a breadbasket.

Study Guide for The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth study guide contains a biography of Norton Juster, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Phantom Tollbooth
• The Phantom Tollbooth Summary
• Character List

Lesson Plan for The Phantom Tollbooth

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Phantom Tollbooth
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Phantom Tollbooth Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Phantom Tollbooth

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Characters / The Phantom Tollbooth

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• Kid Hero : Only about ten, but still manages to save the princesses.

Dictionopolis

• Adaptational Nice Guy : In the book, he's very irritable and pompous. In the 1970 movie, he's much more genuinely courteous to Milo and his lack of knowledge comes less from willful ignorance and being more Super Gullible and naive.
• Edible Theme Naming : Humbugs are a type of candy.
• Funny Animal : Is an insect, but he walks on two legs and wears clothes.
• Meaningful Name : His name comes from the fact that he's boastful and that he's a bug.
• Mr. Vice Guy : While his intentions are noble and he wouldn't actively hurt someone, he's very self-centred and tends to brag.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Humbug.
• Hypocrite : As pointed out by Milo, he and the Mathemagician have sworn to never agree with each other... even though that in itself is technically agreeing (albeit to disagree).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold : Has a petty rivalry with his brother, but he also invites the heroes to dinner despite them having been jailed and tells them to be optimistic.
• Sibling Rivalry : Resents his brother due to them arguing over whether words or numbers were more important.
• Ambiguously Related : They look very similar, which means they may be brothers or cousins, but it's unknown.
• Character Tics : The Earl's favourite thing to do is to act out idioms.
• Hurricane of Euphemisms : Their main shtick is that the Duke will say something, the Minister will say a synonym for it, the Earl will say another synonym, and the Undersecretary will say a fourth.
• Animals Not to Scale : About the size of a soccer ball.
• Artistic License � Biology : In the movie, he stings the Humbug but survives, though to be fair , he seems to do his stinging with his nose .
• Jerkass to One : Is usually very friendly and understanding, but is snappy towards the Humbug and in the movie he even stings him.
• Punny Name : A spelling bee is usually a spelling contest, but he is an actual bee.
• Verbal Tic : Likes to spell words.
• Virtuous Bees : While he is crabby towards the Humbug, he's mainly very nice and tells Milo not to be afraid of him.
• Talking Animal : Can talk, but apart from his size, isn't anthropomorphic.
• Adaptational Nice Guy : In the book, she was imprisoned because she started hoarding words for herself. In the movie, it was because without Rhyme or Reason people stopped caring which words they used.
• Dark Is Not Evil : Has a gloomy name and wears black, but she's nice to the protagonists and even has "Not-So-Wicked" in her title.
• Darkness Von Gothick Name : Her surname is Macabre .
• Granny Classic : Downplayed. She has some stereotypical "old lady" traits like offering sweets and telling a long story of her youth, but her backstory is quite different from that of a stereotypical grandma.
• Non-Indicative Name : While her name means "vaguely suggestive of death", she herself isn't actually like that.
• Took a Level in Kindness : In her youth, she was greedy and eventually didn't allow anyone to speak. Now, she's a kind old lady who offers food to a lost child and his friend.
• Catchphrase : Tells everyone, "You're guilty!" in the book or "I've never seen anyone so guilty!" in the movie.
• Insane Troll Logic : Accuses people of forgetting his birthday when they don't know him, of being guilty because they were holding the word "guilty", etc.
• Meaningful Name : The "short" in his name makes sense because he isn't very tall. 'Short shrift' is also slang for rapid and unsympathetic dismissal.
• The Napoleon : Very short and quick to assume someone is guilty.

Digitopolis

• Good with Numbers : His whole shtick is that he loves numbers and math, being the ruler of a math-related city and sharing knowledge about numbers.
• Hypocrite : As pointed out by Milo, he and Azaz have sworn to never agree with each other... even though that in itself is technically agreeing (albeit to disagree).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold : Much like Azaz, he has a bitter, petty rivalry with his brother but is hospitable to the heroes.
• Punny Name : His name is a portmanteau of "mathematician" and "magician".
• Sibling Rivalry : Is at odds with his brother due to them arguing over whether words or numbers are better.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Mathemagician.
• A Dog Named "Dog" : Is named the Dodechahedron because that's what his shape is. In fact, he doesn't even understand names, believing that everyone should just be called by their species because if numbers had names, arithmetic wouldn't work.
• Good with Numbers : Likes calculating numbers and believes the world should work in terms of math.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Dodechahedron.
• Good with Numbers : Likes to calculate statistics.
• No Name Given : While most sources refer to him as "the half child" because that's the title of the chapter he appears in, he doesn't have a name, or even a title.

Forest of Sight

• Flight : Being a Bings child, he's always floating above the ground at the height he will be when he's grown up.
• Power Incontinence : Has X-ray vision but can't turn it off, causing him to bump into things.
• Meaningful Name : His name comes from "chrome", which means "colour".
• Fat and Proud : While he isn't fat, he enjoys pretending to be the "thinnest fat man" and "fattest thin man".
• No Name Given : His actual name is never revealed.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : Has four titles, that all have "The" in them.

Mountains of Ignorance

• Alliterative Name : The T errible T rivium.
• Badass Boast : Gives a rather unusual one about embodying triviality in both the book and the 1970 film, but with different emphasis at the end. Film : Quite correct. The Terrible Trivium. Demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs. Ogre of wasted effort. And friend to lazy and foolish people everywhere. Book : I am the Terrible Trivium. Demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs. Ogre of wasted effort. And monster of habit.
• The Blank : Has no face. The 1970 adaptation has this trait, but also gives him indications of eyebrows to show off his true malicious intent and allow for some emotion.
• The Bore : Makes people do boring things like moving a pile of sand one grain at a time.
• Faux Affably Evil : He initially greets and treats the heroes with politeness, but it gradually becomes clear that he's forcing them to do menial tasks to distract them from their goal and he's truly evil beneath his suave demeanor.
• Meaningful Name : Gets his name from his enjoyment of having people do trivial things.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast : Has "terrible" in his name.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Terrible Trivium.
• The Bore : Makes people fill out long, boring forms.
• Character Tics : Blows his nose, polishes his glasses, and straightens his tie a lot.
• Intangible Theft : Takes people's senses.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Senses Taker.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast : Is just as insincere as his name suggests.
• Small Name, Big Ego : The essential aspect of his character, he talks himself to be a bigger threat than he is, but is actually small and harmless. Unlike most examples, he's willing to admit this, but but that doesn't stop him from attempting to harassing the heroes with his fellow demons anyway .
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Demon of Insincerity.
• What Happened to the Mouse? : In the movie, he disappeared the moment the Terrible Trivium is defeated, presumably he fused with the other demons into the final one.
• Alliterative Name : The G elatinous G iant.
• Death by Adaptation : In the book, he's merely frightened off. In the movie, the possibility of an idea frightens him enough that he melts to death.
• Driven to Suicide : In the film, he's so frightened by the concept of ideas that he causes himself to slowly melt away.
• Dying Vocal Change : His already deep voice distorts even deeper as he melts himself to death.
• Evil Sounds Deep : Has an appropriately deep voice, which somehow gets even deeper as he dies.
• Family-Unfriendly Death : In the film, he kills himself via melting alive rather than admit to an idea and his voice gets gradually distorted into an evil tone as he dies .
• I'm Melting! : In the movie, he dies by melting.
• Our Giants Are Bigger : Is a giant who eats humans and can melt in the movie adaptation.
• Sapient Eat Sapient : Eats humans, but it's not cannibalism since he himself isn't a human, but a demon.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Gelatinous Giant.
• Too Unhappy to Be Hungry : Refuses to eat if he's scared.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? : Afraid of ideas.
• Adapted Out : He doesn't appear in the 1970 film adaptation of the story.
• Card-Carrying Villain : Outright admits to wanting to be a demon.
• Fun with Homophones : Will interpret "sense" as "cents" and do other such misinterpretations.
• The Gadfly : Likes to annoy everyone by misinterpreting what they say.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Everpresent Wordsnatcher.
• Humanoid Abomination : In the film adaptation, he is presented as a yellow, skeletally gaunt demon with a long lower jaw and a head crest with his torso/limbs being disproportionately thinner than his arms.
• Jerkass Woobie : In-Universe , he's a demon but he's so beat-up looking that Milo feels sorry for him.
• Playing Sick : One of his lies is "I was sick".
• Punny Name : A pun on threadbare excuses , and he himself wears threadbare clothes.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Threadbare Excuse.
• What Happened to the Mouse? : In the movie, it disappeared the moment the Terrible Trivium is defeated, presumably it fused with the other demons into the final one.
• Insufferable Genius : He looks down on everyone who knows less than he does.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : Like most demons, he has a "the" in his name.
• Smug Snake : His entire being is about being snide about others being wrong about everything while holding himself to a higher degree.
• Meaningful Name : Gets his name from looking grotesque and having exaggerated features.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Gross Exaggeration.
• Golden Mean Fallacy : They're physical embodiments of the logical fallacy whereby one assumes that the middle position between two views is correct simply because it's in the middle.
• Oxymoronic Being : One of them is tall and thin, while the second is short and fat; the third, in an embodiment of the logical fallacy they embody, is somehow exactly like the other two.
• No Name Given : The individuals aren't named.
• Alliterative Name : The H orrible H opping H indsight.
• Ambiguous Gender : Is only briefly seen, so we don't know its gender.
• Breath Weapon : Breathes fire whenever it makes a sound, which hints at its demonic nature.
• Canon Foreigner : Never appeared in the book.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There : Has eyes on its rear end due to its face also being on its rear.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast : Has "horrible" in its name.
• Playing with Fire : He can breathe fire.
• Punny Name : Has eyes on its butt, which is a pun on the word "hindsight".
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Horrible Hopping Hindsight.
• What Happened to the Mouse? : It disappeared the moment the Terrible Trivium is defeated, presumably it fused with the other demons into the final one.
• Ambiguous Gender : Like the Horrible Hopping Hindsight, its gender is unclear.
• Canon Foreigner : Never appears in the books.
• Informed Flaw : Is said to be a hypocrite but is never seen doing anything hypocritical.
• Nightmare Face : Has a constant snarling face with wide eyes with tiny pupils.
• Our Dragons Are Different : Resembles a two headed, wingless dragon.
• Punny Name : Literally has two faces.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Two-Faced Hypocrite.
• Informed Flaw : Other than looking malicious and hateful, they never do anything particularly malicious or hateful.
• Our Demons Are Different : They resemble snails, but have reptilian heads- the green one having a serpentine head and the purple one having a vaguely beaked turtle head.
• Speedy Snail : In spite of their size and snail appearances, the two are able to move at fast speeds.
• What Happened to the Mouse? : In the movie, they disappeared the moment the Terrible Trivium is defeated, presumably they fused with the other demons into the final one.
• Anthropomorphic Personification : Heavily implied to be the personification of all the evils in the world.
• Fusion Dance : An amalgamation of the remaining demons, creating a large purplish-blue draconic beast.
• Knight of Cerebus : Its appearance marks the darkest point in the already threatening Mountains of Ignorance, temporally killing Tock, and its entire appearance doesn't have any comedy to balance it out.
• Made of Evil : Made from all of the remaining Demons of Ignorance, who already personify negative aspects of humanity , making it comprised of every evil imaginable.
• No Name Given : Unlike the other demons, it doesn't have a name.

Other Places

• Berserk Button : He hardly ever gets angry, but he will loudly tell off anyone who wastes time, and the phrase "killing time" also makes him angry.
• Heroic Dog : Is a dog who helps save the princesses.
• Non-Indicative Name : When he was born, his parents expected him to make a "tock" noise like his older brother, but he ticked, thus his name doesn't match his sound.
• Only Sane Man : While Milo is pretty sensible, he's just a kid, and everyone else is very zany, so he's often the only one to be using logic.
• Talking Animal : Is mainly a normal dog but can speak.
• Visual Pun : He's a literal watchdog.
• Closer to Earth : They're two of the few female characters in the book, and are the embodiment of reason.
• Damsel in Distress : Downplayed; they're princesses who need rescuing, but rather than being in immediate danger, they were banished and imprisoned.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane : Around the time of their banishment, numerous illogical things happened around the area (such as the city of Reality turning invisible when ignored and the Soundkeeper locking up all sounds), but it's unclear if they happened because of the princesses' absence.
• Meaningful Name : Their names come from the expression "rhyme and reason", and Reason is just as logical as her name suggests.
• Non-Indicative Name : Aside from the allusion to the saying "rhyme and reason", Rhyme doesn't have much to do with rhyming.
• Prefers Going Barefoot : The illustrations of the book depict them barefoot. However, this is somehow subverted, as one of the illustrations does depict them wearing shoes.
• The Faceless : Their faces are not shown in the movie.
• Theme Twin Naming : Their names are both abstract concepts beginning with "R".
• Adaptational Villainy : In the book, they were just a bunch of boring Lazy Bums whose offer Milo happens to initially agree with with no apparent hidden motive on the part of the Lethargarians. In the movie, they actively want to make Milo stop doing anything including breathing and make a deliberate attempt to prevent from escaping.
• Faux Affably Evil : As the above indicates, in the movie, their lazy demeanors to seemingly help Milo from worrying too much about everything are shown to be a facade as they're shown to be sinister and very intent on keeping Milo from doing anything.
• Lazy Bum : Spend most of their time procrastinating and sleeping.
• Sleepyhead : They spend most of their time napping.
• Starter Villain : While not directly connected to the Demons of Ignorance, they're the first obstacle that Milo must face in the world he faces. The film makes it more apparent by making them far more malicious in intent at hindering the boy.
• Ditzy Genius : Is simultaneously as smart and as stupid as can be, so he can speak several languages, but can't tie his shoes.
• Punny Name : His name is a pun on the phrase "can be".
• Sizeshifter : He is sometimes as tall as can be and sometimes as short.
• Meaningful Name : The A in his name stands for As-Loud-As-Possible and his first name is Cacophonous, which fit with his love of loud noises.
• No Indoor Voice : He likes to talk really loudly.
• Dark Is Not Evil : Despite being made of smoke and having "awful" in his name, he's harmless.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase : He likes to say, "No [noun-beginning-with-N] is good [noun-beginning-with-N]".
• No Indoor Voice : Like Dr. Dischord, he enjoys talking loudly.
• The Pollyanna : He is an orphan, his grandfather is dead, and he grew up on the streets, but he doesn't seem to mind.
• Spell My Name with a "The" : The Awful Dynne.
• Everyone Calls Her "Barkeep" : Is only known by her job.
• Incredibly Lame Fun : Likes to "listen" to silence.
• Department of Redundancy Department : Loves saying things three times.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" : "Whether man" is his job, not his name, which is unknown.

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