In the Night Garden and Omir the Wizard

The novel In the Night Garden, by Catherine Valente, there are many different characters. The reader is allowed to understand almost all of the characters very deeply and intricately because of Valente's descriptive language and the time she takes to use said language to describe each character. This being said, some characters can be known more than others, and some characters can be found more interesting. The character that I found the most interesting was Omir the Wizard. Omir is a very manipulative and possibly evil character. However, Valente gives him a relatable and interesting past that makes the reader not only more interested in his character, but also more empathetic towards him.
The chapter on Omir's childhood is entitled "The Tale of the Boy Who Found Death". It is quite the disturbing chapter. Valente describes Omir's illness quite brutally, and in less flowery fashion than the reader is used to from her previous descriptions. When describing the Wizard's condition, she writes; "From the time I was born, my skin peeled and paled, sloughing off as though I could not wait to be out of it..." I find this hard to imagine, and when I do, I become grossed out. Regardless, Omir the child suffers with this terrible illness, and his mother ties him to the wall because of it. Through this suffering, Omir believes he has become to know exactly who and what death is. As a child, he will take every metaphor about death that his parents say literally and he will subsequently have outlandish perceptions of death. Omir believes death is a man, that has always been close to him. Because he believes death, the man, has always been near him, he believes that death should have taken him. When he does not die, he thinks that death owes him. This is the beginning of Omir's "power trip" so to say. It is the beginning of his power trip because he feels he is owed something and this therefore gives him power over death. When he travels to find death and instead becomes a "doulios" for another collared wizard, his power trip grows. This is because he is learning to manipulate nature and subsequently feel power over it. Through these power trips, Omir's evil grows. Yes, he did come from a very humble and ill background. However, the power he finds at the end of his illness and through his training causes him to become evil. He is evil because he manipulates people, and physically maims and harms them. He starts small, by simply learning to help people. However, throughout the novel the reader learns of more and more crimes he comits and lies that he tells.