The Whether Man is the first person Milo meets in the Lands Beyond. He lives in Expectations and, when people honk, he runs to the road to dispense advice. But the Whether Man hates making decisions, so his speech only confuses Milo because he won’t speak clearly or without using wordplay that goes right over Milo’s head.
Get the entire The Phantom Tollbooth LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Whether Man Character Timeline in The Phantom Tollbooth
The timeline below shows where the character The Whether Man appears in The Phantom Tollbooth. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2. Beyond Expectations
...times. In this manner, the man welcomes Milo to Expectations and introduces himself as the Whether Man . Shocked by the greeting, Milo asks if he’s on the right road for Dictionopolis....
(full context)
...Milo says he thought the man was the Weather Man—but the man says he’s the Whether Man because “it’s more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather...
(full context)
Though Milo doesn’t know where he’s going, he tells the Whether Man he can find his own way. The Whether Man asks Milo to return his way...
(full context)
Milo drives away into a green valley. As he drives, Milo tells himself that the Whether Man is the strangest person he’s ever met. (Milo doesn’t know he's going to meet many...
(full context)
