Clive Barker's The Thief Of Always

Clive Barker, The Thief of Always is a phenomenal book, it is about a boy who is bored and gets taken to a holiday house only children can see…… Barker characterizes Hood the creator of the holiday house and Harvey the boy in the holiday house as very similar characters. There is one difference that really separates them apart. Barker characterizes diverse features of Hood and Harvey like, one has a heart and one doesn’t. Barker also gives Hood and Harvey similarities, they are both Thieves of Always, and they are also both vampires.
One way that Hood and Harvey are similar is, they are both Thieves of Always. Hood is the thief of time, which is the thief of always. The thieves meet. Hood tells Harvey that he is the thief of time. Hood says,

“ We're both thieves, Harvey Swick. I take time. You take lives. But in the end we're the same: both Thieves of Always” ( 98 ). Hood claims that he is the thief of time, and that Harvey is the thief of lives but in reality Harvey is just trying to kill all of Hoods servants so that he can getto Hood. Harvey knows that Hoods servants are all dust. Harvey is the thief of all of Hoods servants (Carna, Marr, and Jive). He also steals all the children and their souls from Hood. When Harvey is in the House and Hood tells Carna to eat Harvey. Barker narrates, “ Before the wretched beast could shift itself Harvey scrambled to his feet. In the race to the trapdoor he knew he had little chance of outrunning Carna; but was there perhaps another way of laying the beast low? If he was a Thief of Always, as Hood had said, perhaps it was time to prove it” ( 97). Hood and Harvey both illustrate that they both are thieves of always. They are both very similar and act almost the same. Barker illustrates many similarities between Hood and Harvey and only one of them is that they are both thieves of always.
Hood and Harvey are both vampires.

Harvey scares Wendell on Halloween. He also at the end wishes that he was a vampire again and says that it felt good to be a vampire. This is the next day after Harvey scared Wendall at Halloween. Harvey states, “ Oh, to be a vampire again, Harvey thought. To have claws and fangs and a hunger for blood upon him, like the hunger he'd had that distant Halloween; the distant Halloween; the gust” ( 102 ). Here Barker is implying that Harvey liked being a vampire and he wants to be one again. He liked blood, and liked the hunger that he had that Halloween. Hood sucks souls from innocent little kids, and he sucks kids out of ther life to live in the Hood House. When Wendell and Harvey are about to go back to the real world. Harvey claims, "Yeah. Like ... like ... like a vampire." This was the first time Harvey had thought of Hood that way, but it instinctively seemed right. Blood was life, and life was what w Hood fed upon. He was a vampire, sure enough. Maybe a king among vampires”. ( 76 ). Here Harvey is stating that he thinks Hood is a vampire because of the way he takes kids into the holiday house and sucks the blood or souls from the innocent little kids. Hood is the king of all the vampires because he is the leader of his servants. Hood and Harvey are both vampires. They both use their vampire skills for very different things. One uses it for evil and one uses it for helpful

things.

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Hood and Harvey have one difference which is Hood doesn’t have a heart and Harvey does. Hood has no heart and his soul is empty with nothing and no one to love. When Harvey was talking to Rictus about Wendell going swimming in the lake, harvey got sad, Barker narrates, “ They were both useless, fists and tears. He couldn't soften Hood's heart with weeping, and he couldn't bring down the House with blows. He had no weapon against the enemy but his wits, and his wits were about at an end” ( 102 ). Harvey is very upset, he does not like Hood, he thinks that Hood is very mean. He knew there was no way to defeat Hood. Harvey has a heart, it is full of personality. He cares for Wendell, Lulu and Carna. When Harvey is about to go back to the real world and wants Mrs. Griffin to go with him. Barker narrates, “ Her hair had fallen out, and her nose disappeared. Her mouth had lost its lips and her blue eyes turned to swivelling silver balls, lidless and lashless. And yet, despite their freakishness, there was human feeling in those eyes, and on that mouth: a terrible sadness that he knew would never leave his heart if he lived to be a thousand” ( 59 ). Harvey feels very bad for Mrs.Griffin, he wants to help Mrs. Griffin, he cares about her. He wants to take Mrs.Griffin to the real world, but doesn’t know he is coming back. Anything Hood clearly says is not caring nor kind, all he wants to do is suck souls from innocent kids, Harvey on the other hand cares about almost everyone and tries to get them out of the holiday house.
Barker is an amazing author, he characterizes Hood and Harvey as almost the same people but really they aren’t. Hood and Harvey are very similar, but they have one difference that keeps them apart.