Eddie Dean
Encyclopedia
Edward Cantor "Eddie" Dean is a fictional character in Stephen King
's The Dark Tower
series of novels. He was introduced in The Drawing of the Three and became a main character for the remainder of the series.
, enters his head from a magical door on the beach of Mid-World. Eddie is a 21-year-old heroin addict from Co-Op City, Brooklyn
(in the real world, Co-Op City is in the Bronx
) in 1987. When Roland enters his head, Eddie is on a plane, smuggling cocaine
back to New York
for mob
boss Enrico Balazar. When a stewardess on the airplane becomes suspicious of him, Roland helps him smuggle the cocaine through the door into Mid-World, which saves Eddie when he is later searched and checked by airport security. Roland Helps Eddie by keeping the cocaine hidden in his world under some brush and rocks, until Eddie can get to Balazar to deliver it safely. Eddie becomes aware of Roland's wavering health condition, and after being released from customs due to lack of evidence helps Roland temporarily ease his suffering by providing him with food, and an aspirin-based medicine to reduce his fever. On the trip to his home to meet with his brother Henry (also a heroin addict, however far more on the nod) Roland/Eddie realize they are being tailed by both the DEA and Balazar's henchmen- and thus decide to keep an open eye and be prepared for anything.
When he gets back home, Eddie is captured by Balazar's men, who he discovers have already taken his brother hostage and cleaned his place of any personal heroin stash he may have had waiting. He is then taken to the mob's headquarters in Little Italy. With the cocaine still in Mid-World, Eddie fears that Balazar will kill him before he can find a way to get it back to his world. After being questioned and strip-searched by Balazar and his men, Eddie is allowed to go into the bathroom (under the premise that he is going to magically make the cocaine appear), but unfortunately Balazar wants Jack Andolini, his lieutenant to go with him. After pushing Andolini through the door to Mid-World, he is first wounded (by his own gun exploding), then eaten alive by the "lobstrosities" on the beach. Roland gives Eddie one of his guns, and both of them go back into the mob headquarters. While in the bathroom, Eddie discovers some antibiotics that Roland could take in order to kill off his infection. Eddie then overhears of his brother Henry's death at the hands of one of Balazar's men, and they proceed to shoot and kill Balazar and his men, after which they pass again through the door, returning to Mid-World.
from his heroin addiction and immediately becomes distrustful of Roland. This is unusual as paranoia is not a symptom of opiate withdrawal. Fortunately, Eddie never suffers the more typical, painful and even life threatening symptoms of cold opiate withdrawal. When Roland and Eddie finally reach the door that will lead to the next person who is supposed to help them in their quest, they realize that it leads to New York (only this time in 1964). Eddie realizes he can get some heroin and begs Roland to let him go through the door, but Roland refuses him and goes in alone. Eddie hits a breaking point and almost murders an unconscious Roland on the beach, but his good senses (or Roland's good timing) finally beat his heroin addiction.
When Roland brings back his second companion, Odetta Holmes, Eddie immediately falls in love with her, and goes through the struggles of her split personality with Roland. He helps Odetta deal with her split personality, and she eventually becomes his wife, with the new name of Susannah Dean
.
For a time, Roland and Eddie have a degree of personality conflict within the group. As the one member of the Ka-Tet to join in the midst of a drug addiction, Roland initially thought of Eddie as both weak-willed and narcissistic, often taking time to chide Eddie's jokes and sense of humor as being worthless. Slowly, as Eddie matured and kicked his bad habits, Roland grudgingly accepted that Eddie's sense of humor was both reminiscent of his old companion Cuthbert Allgood, but it was also a defense mechanism formed from his abusive relationship with his older brother. It was only after Eddie discovered the weakness of Blaine the Mono
during their riddling that Roland recanted his harsh criticisms of Eddie and was one of the few times that Roland had to "cry pardon" to him.
Throughout the rest of the series, Eddie becomes a sort of humorous sidekick in Roland's ka-tet, and often a taste of the real world and real life to the numerous characters they come across. At one point, Roland says Eddie looks and acts exactly like Cuthbert Allgood
, a friend from his younger days.
Although Roland is the clearly defined leader (or "Dinh") of the Ka-Tet, he mentions a few times Eddie is most likely to take up leadership should Roland be killed. Although Jake is only a teenager, Susannah is older than Eddie, meaning Roland sees in Eddie some leadership traits that are absent in Susannah. Roland once stated that he is content with going into battle, because he knows should he fall, Eddie would lead the group onward to the Dark Tower.
In battle, Eddie is usually the one who wields and uses Roland's spare revolver - the one Roland cannot use because of the missing digits on his right hand. Through Roland's teachings and his own talent (Roland mentions that all his companions are born Gunslingers) he reaches a level of skill that approaches Roland's. Eddie's character also develops some gunslinger-like traits, such as not showing mercy and trusting his instincts and Ka. Most often, it is Eddie who makes the intuitive and creative leaps in problem-solving that bail the group out of trouble. His older brother, though seriously flawed, once identified this characteristic as the reason that he would always take Eddie as his number one choice to bail himself out of trouble; Eddie could "convince the Devil to set himself on fire" if he had to.
from their prison and stopped, at least temporarily, the destruction of the universe
– the nearly dead warden of the Breaker prison shoots Eddie in the head. To the horror of the ka-tet, Eddie collapses immediately; Roland kills the dying warden.
Eddie spends the afternoon and evening lying – delirious, but comforted by Susannah – on his deathbed. When Roland and Jake Chambers
enter his room for the last time, he speaks a final message to each of them. He thanks Roland for being his father and tells Jake to make sure that Roland watches for Dandelo. Eddie's death permanently breaks the ka-tet, bringing devastation and sadness to Roland, Jake, Susannah, and Oy
. With their almost mystical bond shattered, the group remains lethal, but the momentum they once felt in their overall purpose begins to diminish. Roland and Susannah later realize that the loss of any one member of the Ka-Tet increases the danger for the survivors, who must cope without that individual's talents, which they only realize after barely escaping Dandelo's trap—a trap that they realize Eddie would have almost immediately sensed.
Both Eddie's death and that of Cuthbert Algood were by mortal wounds to the eye, mirroring the two characters even in death.
, and their last name is now "Toren", the Dutch
word for "tower", and this version of Eddie Dean was also lacking the heroin addiction that plagued the Eddie Dean who had been a member of the ka-tet.
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower (series)
The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...
series of novels. He was introduced in The Drawing of the Three and became a main character for the remainder of the series.
New York
Eddie is introduced in The Drawing of the Three when the series protagonist, Roland DeschainRoland Deschain
Roland Deschain of Gilead is a fictional character, the protagonist and antihero of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. He is the son of Steven and Gabrielle Deschain and is descended from a long line of "gunslingers", peacekeepers and diplomats of Roland's society...
, enters his head from a magical door on the beach of Mid-World. Eddie is a 21-year-old heroin addict from Co-Op City, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
(in the real world, Co-Op City is in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
) in 1987. When Roland enters his head, Eddie is on a plane, smuggling cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
back to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
for mob
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
boss Enrico Balazar. When a stewardess on the airplane becomes suspicious of him, Roland helps him smuggle the cocaine through the door into Mid-World, which saves Eddie when he is later searched and checked by airport security. Roland Helps Eddie by keeping the cocaine hidden in his world under some brush and rocks, until Eddie can get to Balazar to deliver it safely. Eddie becomes aware of Roland's wavering health condition, and after being released from customs due to lack of evidence helps Roland temporarily ease his suffering by providing him with food, and an aspirin-based medicine to reduce his fever. On the trip to his home to meet with his brother Henry (also a heroin addict, however far more on the nod) Roland/Eddie realize they are being tailed by both the DEA and Balazar's henchmen- and thus decide to keep an open eye and be prepared for anything.
When he gets back home, Eddie is captured by Balazar's men, who he discovers have already taken his brother hostage and cleaned his place of any personal heroin stash he may have had waiting. He is then taken to the mob's headquarters in Little Italy. With the cocaine still in Mid-World, Eddie fears that Balazar will kill him before he can find a way to get it back to his world. After being questioned and strip-searched by Balazar and his men, Eddie is allowed to go into the bathroom (under the premise that he is going to magically make the cocaine appear), but unfortunately Balazar wants Jack Andolini, his lieutenant to go with him. After pushing Andolini through the door to Mid-World, he is first wounded (by his own gun exploding), then eaten alive by the "lobstrosities" on the beach. Roland gives Eddie one of his guns, and both of them go back into the mob headquarters. While in the bathroom, Eddie discovers some antibiotics that Roland could take in order to kill off his infection. Eddie then overhears of his brother Henry's death at the hands of one of Balazar's men, and they proceed to shoot and kill Balazar and his men, after which they pass again through the door, returning to Mid-World.
In Roland's World
While helping Roland back to good health, Eddie begins to suffer unusual withdrawal symptomsWithdrawal
Withdrawal can refer to any sort of separation, but is most commonly used to describe the group of symptoms that occurs upon the abrupt discontinuation/separation or a decrease in dosage of the intake of medications, recreational drugs, and alcohol...
from his heroin addiction and immediately becomes distrustful of Roland. This is unusual as paranoia is not a symptom of opiate withdrawal. Fortunately, Eddie never suffers the more typical, painful and even life threatening symptoms of cold opiate withdrawal. When Roland and Eddie finally reach the door that will lead to the next person who is supposed to help them in their quest, they realize that it leads to New York (only this time in 1964). Eddie realizes he can get some heroin and begs Roland to let him go through the door, but Roland refuses him and goes in alone. Eddie hits a breaking point and almost murders an unconscious Roland on the beach, but his good senses (or Roland's good timing) finally beat his heroin addiction.
When Roland brings back his second companion, Odetta Holmes, Eddie immediately falls in love with her, and goes through the struggles of her split personality with Roland. He helps Odetta deal with her split personality, and she eventually becomes his wife, with the new name of Susannah Dean
Susannah Dean
Susannah Odetta Holmes Dean is a fictional character from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series...
.
For a time, Roland and Eddie have a degree of personality conflict within the group. As the one member of the Ka-Tet to join in the midst of a drug addiction, Roland initially thought of Eddie as both weak-willed and narcissistic, often taking time to chide Eddie's jokes and sense of humor as being worthless. Slowly, as Eddie matured and kicked his bad habits, Roland grudgingly accepted that Eddie's sense of humor was both reminiscent of his old companion Cuthbert Allgood, but it was also a defense mechanism formed from his abusive relationship with his older brother. It was only after Eddie discovered the weakness of Blaine the Mono
Blaine the Mono
Blaine the Mono is a fictional character appearing in the books The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands and The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass of Stephen King's Dark Tower series....
during their riddling that Roland recanted his harsh criticisms of Eddie and was one of the few times that Roland had to "cry pardon" to him.
Throughout the rest of the series, Eddie becomes a sort of humorous sidekick in Roland's ka-tet, and often a taste of the real world and real life to the numerous characters they come across. At one point, Roland says Eddie looks and acts exactly like Cuthbert Allgood
Cuthbert Allgood
Cuthbert Allgood is a fictional character from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. He is Roland Deschain's childhood friend and a member of his original ka-tet. Cuthbert, often called Bert, is first featured in The Gunslinger, but he does not play a major role in the series until Wizard and...
, a friend from his younger days.
Although Roland is the clearly defined leader (or "Dinh") of the Ka-Tet, he mentions a few times Eddie is most likely to take up leadership should Roland be killed. Although Jake is only a teenager, Susannah is older than Eddie, meaning Roland sees in Eddie some leadership traits that are absent in Susannah. Roland once stated that he is content with going into battle, because he knows should he fall, Eddie would lead the group onward to the Dark Tower.
In battle, Eddie is usually the one who wields and uses Roland's spare revolver - the one Roland cannot use because of the missing digits on his right hand. Through Roland's teachings and his own talent (Roland mentions that all his companions are born Gunslingers) he reaches a level of skill that approaches Roland's. Eddie's character also develops some gunslinger-like traits, such as not showing mercy and trusting his instincts and Ka. Most often, it is Eddie who makes the intuitive and creative leaps in problem-solving that bail the group out of trouble. His older brother, though seriously flawed, once identified this characteristic as the reason that he would always take Eddie as his number one choice to bail himself out of trouble; Eddie could "convince the Devil to set himself on fire" if he had to.
Death
In the final novel, The Dark Tower – after Roland and his ka-tet have freed the BreakersBreakers (Stephen King)
Breakers are humans from various parallel worlds in Stephen King's multiverse who have various psychic powers. For example, a breaker named Dinky Earnshaw, from both King's Everything's Eventual and the Dark Tower series, has an ability "from some promise" to kill anything he chooses, although he...
from their prison and stopped, at least temporarily, the destruction of the universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
– the nearly dead warden of the Breaker prison shoots Eddie in the head. To the horror of the ka-tet, Eddie collapses immediately; Roland kills the dying warden.
Eddie spends the afternoon and evening lying – delirious, but comforted by Susannah – on his deathbed. When Roland and Jake Chambers
Jake Chambers
John "Jake" Chambers is a fictional character in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels. He first appeared in the short story "The Way Station" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in April 1980, which was later compiled as one of the chapters of the first Dark Tower book, The...
enter his room for the last time, he speaks a final message to each of them. He thanks Roland for being his father and tells Jake to make sure that Roland watches for Dandelo. Eddie's death permanently breaks the ka-tet, bringing devastation and sadness to Roland, Jake, Susannah, and Oy
Oy (Dark Tower)
Oy of Mid-World is a primary character in Stephen King's The Dark Tower. He was introduced in the third book, The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands, and became a member of the ka-tet for the rest of the series....
. With their almost mystical bond shattered, the group remains lethal, but the momentum they once felt in their overall purpose begins to diminish. Roland and Susannah later realize that the loss of any one member of the Ka-Tet increases the danger for the survivors, who must cope without that individual's talents, which they only realize after barely escaping Dandelo's trap—a trap that they realize Eddie would have almost immediately sensed.
Both Eddie's death and that of Cuthbert Algood were by mortal wounds to the eye, mirroring the two characters even in death.
Epilogue
In the aftermath of The Dark Tower, Susannah enters a door leading to New York and meets Eddie again; however, it is uncertain whether this is her Eddie Dean or just a parallel version of him. Although the new Eddie seems not to have remembered his time with Roland and the ka-tet, he claims to have dreamed about Susannah and to have been in love with her. This Eddie is also brother to Jake ChambersJake Chambers
John "Jake" Chambers is a fictional character in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels. He first appeared in the short story "The Way Station" in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in April 1980, which was later compiled as one of the chapters of the first Dark Tower book, The...
, and their last name is now "Toren", the Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
word for "tower", and this version of Eddie Dean was also lacking the heroin addiction that plagued the Eddie Dean who had been a member of the ka-tet.