For the film counterpart, see Enoch O'Connor (film).
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Enoch O'Connor is a male peculiar with the ability to animate the dead for brief periods of time.
Biography
Early life
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Although little is known about Enoch's life before Miss Peregrine's loop, it is said that he was born to a family of undertakers and practiced his peculiarity on corpses. He lived in a different loop before moving to Miss Peregrine's.
In the 1930s, he met Mahatma Gandhi.
During his time in Miss Peregrine's loop, he had magazines and manuals about cars delivered to his post office box in present-day Cairnholm.
He once pulled a "deceased debutante" scare on a loop trapped gentleman who thought he was "God's gift to women." Disguising a skeleton he was controlling as a lady and keeping her face hidden, Enoch lured the man into agreeing to marry the lady before revealing her face. This caused the man to faint dead away.[1]
Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
Enoch was living in Miss Peregrine's loop when Jacob Portman arrives. He doesn't interact with him in the beginning but after a while Jacob approaches Enoch, who is practicing his powers. He strikes up a conversation with Jacob and instantly comes off as arrogant and cynical. Jacob tries to get information out of Enoch about the wights, but is only lead to deceased Victor Bruntley's bedroom after Enoch's suggestion. Bronwyn and Enoch confront him in Victor's bedroom, and Enoch makes Bronwyn cry. It's implied that Enoch had resurrected Victor in secret, perhaps multiple times, likely with Bronwyn present.
Further into the novel, Enoch goes along with Emma Bloom's plan to wake Martin, the dead museum's curator, so they could interrogate him about his murderer's identity. Enoch uses his peculiarity to bring life back into Martin's body and (along with the assistance of Jacob, Emma and Bronwyn Bruntley) had just began to question him when they were interrupted by Golan. After the wight in disguise failed to manipulate Jacob into siding with him, Golan leaves the peculiar children to perish under a hollowgast's wrath. But together the children manage to temporarily overthrow the monster. Enoch, alongside Bronwyn, flee back to the safety of their loop after Jacob instructs them to.
After the battle at the docks, they learn that the changeover didn't come and that Miss Peregrine has been abducted by the wights. The peculiars decide to bury Victor's body before they escape their loop, and it is evident that Enoch had been close to Victor, as he presents his favourite homunculus (clay doll) to Victor's grave. Afterwards, Enoch along with the other children, sets off in multiple boats in search of Miss Peregrine.
Hollow City
Enoch appears in chapter 1 of Hollow City, together with Jacob, Hugh Apiston and Emma. He helps to prevent the boats from capsizing during a vicious storm. It is mentioned that Enoch brought with him a duffel bag filled with jars of reptile hearts.
In chapter 3, Enoch's passion for war and the military is made clear when he recognizes the air raid blimp that the wights were traveling undercover in. They escape into the woods after the wights spot them and Bronwyn reads a story from The Tales of the Peculiar to a distressed Claire Densmore. Enoch scoffs at the stories' stupidity. As the children all fall asleep around their makeshift camp, Enoch sits with his back to Horace Somnusson in an attempt to stay warm.
After being taken captive by the gypsies, Enoch helps to devise a plan to escape their cell. Afterward, they all gradually earn the gypsies' respect and even go as far as demonstrating their peculiarities to them. The peculiar children are abducted by Wights and held at gunpoint after trying to board a train, but are rescued by Hugh. Enoch apologized to Hugh for always poking fun at his peculiarity, saying that he was grateful for what he did. When they finally managed to get on their train, Enoch ordered plenty of food and teases Olive about being a picky eater.
Enoch, having spent his early life in London, is the peculiar's guide for when they are traveling around the city. Enoch also discovers where the peculiar pigeons were hidden and when the peculiars met the Bone Brothers, Enoch was the first one to realize they are peculiars too.
At Sam's and Esme's house, Enoch acts very uncharacteristically. He attempts to cheer up young Esme who is frightened by the bomb raid. Enoch made his homunculus ride on a rubber duck around a bathtub. Unfortunately, the hollowgasts sensed the peculiars through Enoch using his peculiarity and they were forced to leave the two sisters behind.
In chapter 11, Enoch, annoyed by Winnie the peculiar pigeon's confusion, snidely remarks that he would "personally roast her on a spit" if she failed to locate Miss Peregrine.
Library of Souls
He and the others are rescued from the Wights' Fortress by Jacob and Emma in the dungeon and they storm the remainder of the fortress until they are overpowered and surrender. He and the others taken to Abaton to force Jacob to cooperate. After the ymbrynes perform a loop collapse, they all escape in time.
A month or so later he, Miss Peregrine, Emma, Olive, Claire, Bronwyn, Hugh, Millard, and Horace stop Jacob‘s family from putting him in an asylum.
A Map of Days
The Conference of the Birds
The Desolations of Devil's Acre
Description
Physical Appearance
He is described as having messy blonde hair, chubby cheeks, and a cadaverous gaze ringed with black, giving his eyes a raccoon-like appearance. He is five foot four. One of his outfits, a collarless gray shirt under a black vest, fraying black pants, and patent leather shoes without shine, are from a dead person in a Paris funeral parlor.
In the graphic novel, Enoch is shown wearing a long-sleeved green shirt under beige overalls, exactly the same outfit that he wears in the original Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. He is slim and tall for a thirteen-year-old, with ruffled blonde hair and blue eyes.
Personality
Enoch is arrogant, antagonistic and incredibly insecure. He is a true larrikin, known for conjuring up mischief within the household and always adds his own two cents in a conversation. Enoch generally comes off as extremely unlikeable to both society and to his peculiar family, hence Enoch barricading himself off from the other children. However, he has his moments of kindness, such as when he cheered up Esme, and he is loyal to his friends and cares for them.
He seems to fancy ymbrynes, expressing his liking toward Miss Cuckoo, Francesca, and Miss Tern.
Peculiarity
Enoch's peculiarity is to temporarily raise the dead. He keeps preserved animal hearts such as sheep, cow, rodent and reptile in jars in Miss Peregrine's basement. He likes to create "homunculi" figurines out of clay and use them as lab-rats. Enoch occasionally uses his gift to bring his deceased friend Victor back every once and a while to converse with him. It takes several animal hearts, as well as a lot of Enoch's energy, to raise a human being, and after doing so, he is extremely worn out and needs time to recover. He cannot raise a human more than once every few days, and every time they are brought back the quality of the resurrection goes down. Murderer's hearts are good for having the body do physical things, and poets' hearts for strength of mind. Some creatures are too small for him to revive, such as bees.
Relationships
Jacob Portman
In Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, Enoch and Jacob have neutral relationship. But dynamics shift in the sequel Hollow City (where the childrens' personalities are revealed to the reader) Enoch acts in a more critical and hostile manner towards Jacob. He has little or no faith in Jacob and his peculiarity, because of his limited knowledge regarding Peculiardom. He refers to Jacob as either "Portman" or "the American" in a very condescending manner. It is evident that Enoch is jealous of Jacob - this may be because the other children seemed to accept Jacob more than they accept him. Even though he's the last of the children to believe in Jacob, he eventually respects him and is impressed when Jacob unlocks his ability to control the hollows. By The Desolations of Devil's Acre, they have a brotherly relationship as Enoch smiles and gives Jacob a playful elbow to the ribs.
Miss Peregrine
Even though he dislikes the headmistress' strict attitude, he still follows her orders and cares deeply for her. This is made evident when he snaps at the other children during Hollow City for dawdling while Miss Peregrine's life is in danger. In A Map of Days, he is the most vocal about disliking the treatment their group is getting from the ymbrynes. Enoch feels their skills are being underestimated and that Miss Peregrine continues to treat them like children despite all the maturing they'd gone through recently. He even tells the children she can stuff her rules "up her hindfeathers", within possible earshot of Miss Peregrine.
Emma Bloom
Enoch regards Emma as if she were his older sister. He never hesitates to tease her, particularly in regards to her relationship with Jacob and her previous relationship with Abe. Emma strongly dislikes Enoch's pessimistic and disagreeable attitude, causing the two to argue and bicker quite frequently.
In the first novel, Emma told Jacob that she believed Enoch fancied her, though this has never been brought up again in the books. It is confirmed in one of Ransom Riggs's Instagram livestreams.
Bronwyn Bruntley
Enoch treats Bronwyn cruelly, as seen when he pretends to consider waking Victor when he actually had no intention of raising him. He frequently belittles her optimistic attitude and rule-following behavior.
Victor Bruntley
Enoch refers to Victor as his friend, despite the fact that he is dead. Because Enoch is able to bring things back from the dead, he was able to resurrect Victor for brief periods when the children still lived on Cairnholm, though he did not do it often. After their home was destroyed, Enoch helped lay Victor to rest and buried his best homunculus alongside him as a parting gift.
Horace Somnusson
Throughout the first trilogy, Enoch frequently insulted and mocked Horace for his cowardice. However, despite Enoch's bullying, the two seemed to have a decent relationship, evidenced by when they slept back-to-back in the woods and again when Horace jokingly teased Enoch about his fascination with London in Hollow City. Their relationship seems to have improved in the second trilogy and the two can be considered friends.
Hugh Apiston
Enoch often makes fun of Hugh's peculiarity but considers him a brother as well as a friend. In Hollow City, when Hugh is crying over the loss of his bees, Enoch offers to revive them if he could. In The Conference of the Birds, Enoch jokes around with Hugh in an attempt to help keep his mind off of the disappearance of Fiona.
Millard Nullings
Although Enoch taunts Millard from time to time, he considers Millard a friend.
Miss Cuckoo
Enoch seems to take a fancy to her in A Map of Days, getting dopey-faced after she called him brave, despite the fact that, as Millard says, she is a hundred years his senior and an ymbryne.
Francesca
Enoch has a clear crush on Francesca. In The Desolations of Devil's Acre, he points out the fact that after he, Jacob, Horace, Emma, and Bronwyn return to Devil's Acre, what they have accomplished may be acknowledged in the Muckraker, a newspaper. He mentions hoping that Francesca, an ymbryne-in-training currently under Miss Avocet's care, will go on a date with him if she sees the newspaper article.
Gallery
Trivia
- Enoch has a strong love for England, the country in which he was raised. This is made evident when the other children complained that Enoch always bragged about London and being English.
- He has an extensive knowledge on all things military as well as cars (thinking the mechanical and the biomedical similar).
- Before Enoch came to live in Miss Peregrine's loop, he worked as an assistant undertaker in his family's mortuary business.
- Although Enoch claims to be a realist, Emma believes him to be a pessimist.
- In Hollow City, Enoch's birthday is confirmed to be on 3/12/1892, which is likely read as December 3rd, 1892, as the day-month-year format was used in the previous book. Although contrary to this, Enoch's birthday is placed on August 26th on the official peculiar calendar.
- In a deleted scene of A Map of Days, Enoch attends Jacob’s high school under the alias Ernie Ocham. The identity was issued to him by the Office of Fakery and Fraudulism in Devil’s Acre.
- In a video posted on Instagram on November 27th, 2019, Ransom Riggs stated that Enoch doesn't talk much about his old life or loop. As for why Enoch relocated to Miss Peregrine's loop on Cairnholm, Riggs mentioned that there are some peculiars who "don't feel comfortable" living with a deadriser.
References
- ↑ Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (Peculiar Games and Entertainments)