The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Content Warning: The source material contains discussion of drug and alcohol abuse and death by suicide.

Harold Fry is the protagonist of the novel. After receiving a letter, he embarks on what begins as a simple journey to visit a dying friend but turns into a search for inner peace and personal redemption. At 65 years of age, Harold is retired from his job at a local brewery and spends most of his days physically immobile. If he travels anywhere, it is by car: “Since his retirement, days went by and nothing changed; only his waist thickened, and he lost more hair. He slept poorly at night, and sometimes he did not sleep at all” (10). Internally, Harold is also stagnant. He buried the tragedies of the past deep in his subconscious, emotionally separating him from the world and from his wife, Maureen. Harold is a simple, ordinary man who begins the novel as a seemingly innocent character. As the story progresses and his secrets are revealed, the character becomes more complicated and morally complex. Plagued by his fear that he failed to meet his own and others’ expectations, Harold suffers a tormenting cycle of self-doubt as his walk becomes less about keeping Queenie alive and more about punishing himself for his failings.