Small Towns: The Beans live in a small town, and everyone who grew up there knows who is related to (and will provide an alibi) to whom.Mary Bean thinks it might involve warfare. government wants to use Jon's telepathy, but it doesn't sound good. Powered by a Forsaken Child: The author never explains exactly how the U.S.Perfect Pacifist People: Jon's world is an ideal utopia where violence is unknown.Living Lie Detector: Due to his telepathy.Keeping Secrets Sucks: Jon is unhappy with the idea of pretending to be the child of a friend of Thomas Bean.In Which a Trope Is Described: Each chapter title is a sentence beginning with 'He.' as in 'He is Lost and Found' and 'He Gains a Home.'.Identity Amnesia: After falling and hitting his head, Jon forgets who he is and where he came from.Earlier when Thomas asks if they should ask for advice Mary Bean only worries about reporters. Good Is Dumb: The Beans use Jon's telepathy to clear him of a charge of theft, without thinking that the government might try to kidnap Jon for devious purposes.Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Averted, but Jon has a lot of culture shock about the deception and violence on Earth.Fluffy Tamer: Jon manages to play with Rascal, the dog Thomas Bean had just about given up on taming.Captured Super-Entity: The government tries to make Jon into one.

He insists on bringing them with him, so they don't have to be afraid of the government taking revenge on them and so they can see his peaceful world for themselves. When Jon's birth family come through the door to bring him back to their world, the Beans are worried what will happen to them but tell him to go. Aliens Speaking English: Averted, though he is a very quick learner.All of the Other Reindeer: The Pitts and Macklins hate John because he seems strange to them.Most of the book is about the Beans trying to help Jon. Accustomed as he is to his utopian, pacifistic, vegetarian, and money-free world, Jon's bewildered attempts to connect with the petty grievances of Earthlings serve as foil to the reader and while there is some action and suspense, the main tension of the story comes from the sympathetic family that shelters Jon being forced to confront their own complacency towards the injustices of their world while trying to make Jon understand that this is just how life is - but of course, for Jon and his world, it isn't.

The plot concerns a young boy, Jon, who accidentally 'falls' to Earth through the titular portal. The Forgotten Door is a children's novel by Alexander Key first published in 1965.ĭue to its inclusion in many elementary school required reading lists, the book has survived on mediocre popularity, and remains one of the few books by its author still in print.

The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key