Is John Mischief evil?

[caitycat66]

No, I'm not crazy.

I don't mean evil exactly, more of selfish.

My reasoning is this: In book 1, chapter 14, Carrion tells Shape something along the lines of "He's like you, Shape. He wants someone else to be the object of my eye, if only for a while." Now, if John Mischief was such a good guy, why would he give Candy, a 16 year old girl with no knowledge of the Abarat and who is much more likely to be caught by Carrion or his "hench men", the key? Does that make sense? What do you think?

[Usagi]

He's skilled at what he does, that's for sure.

Are we supposed to know? I mean, he's stolen things from both sides of the line, for Carrion and for Pixler. To me he is kind of the middle man (and almost quite literally--he connects Candy to the Abarat). He sort of plays on the darker side, but no, I don't think he is evil.

[Abaratian]

I agree with Usagi, but I do have to say that ever since I first picked up the book, I always saw him as being a selfish person. No, selfish isn't the right word, either... But to the Johns, they only care about themselves, they're numero uno. At the time, they didn't know Candy personally, so they just saw her as a way to escape from Shape alive. They probably had no intentions of getting her hurt, I mean... Mischief makes it obvious that they're going to let Shape keep thinking they have the key. But he did want to get out of Hereafter with his life.