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Franklin Portman is a male normal who is the father of Jacob Portman and the son of the late Abraham Portman.

Biography

Early Life

Franklin was neglected by his father, Abraham. The most hurtful incident being that Abraham never showed up to take Franklin trick-or-treating, leaving Franklin crying in the driveway. What Franklin, his sister, and mother all assumed was that he was on a trip, when in reality Abraham was hunting wights and hollowgasts, and could not come. Franklin's relationship with his father was further complicated when his sister discovered Emma's letters, and they assumed that Abraham was having an affair (which was not true). Most of his resentment comes from his childhood.

When Franklin was ten years old, he finally convinced his father to take him along for one of Abe's "business trips." They picked up H, who was uncertain about Franklin coming along. The three stayed in a motel when it got dark, but in the middle of the night a hollowgast appeared. Franklin witnessed his father hollowspeak, and then ran away to a cornfield and passed out. The next day, Abe had an ymbryne wipe Franklin's memory of the event, but not completely. This led to Franklin having nightmares for years.

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Franklin joins his son Jacob on the trip to Cairnholm, and while he's there, he finds out that there are uncommon bird species there. As the book progresses, Franklin gets more depressed and drunk. Finally, when Jacob tells him he is leaving for awhile, Franklin believed that he had gone mad and that his son was on drugs.

Hollow City

Jacob has a vision of his father climbing a cliff on Cairnholm, looking for his dead body.

Later, Franklin calls Jacob near the end of the book, informing Jacob that he is also in London with his mother, looking for him. Franklin asks if Jacob is on drugs, but Jacob replies that he is peculiar.

Library of Souls

When Jacob sees his father, he had a 3 day beard and seemed to have a lack of sleep. Though glad to see Jacob, he was upset that Jacob unexpectedly left and demanded an answer as to why. Miss Peregrine was going to memory swipe but Jacob stopped her before she did. He believes Jacob's story about not remembering anything until he discovers Emma's letters.

After the letters were discovered, Franklin decides to commit Jacob to a place for crazy people. While in the car about to drive there, the Peculiar children and Miss Peregrine save Jacob.

Description

Appearance

We don't know much about Franklin Portman's appearance except that he has glasses and short, brown hair. We can assume from the graphic novel that he has brown dark eyes.

Personality

Franklin does not seem to embrace things out of the ordinary, particularly the peculiar world. He wants his family to be normal, and rejects the fact that his father and son are peculiar.

A lot of his long-term plans do not last long, an example being that he bought an expensive kitchen after seeing it in a design magazine and tried to justify it by deciding to learn to cook to throw dinner parties, but he stopped after a few lessons. He is also not a sentimental person. a trait he shares with his sister. Franklin is easily discouraged; he is caught in a "pathetic cycle" in which he becomes passionate about a project, but one small problem that comes up overwhelms him, causing him to abandon the project and move on to the next one. He is trying to "find himself" and prove that he doesn't need his wife's money.

Relationships

Family Tree

Abraham PortmanGrandmother
Maryann PortmanFranklin PortmanSusan Portman
Jacob Portman

Jacob Portman

Franklin and his son clearly demonstrate a somewhat closer relationship than Jacob and his mother, both understanding one another to some degree. It is he who accompanies Jacob to Wales in the first novel but then thinks that they shouldn't have gone to Wales.

At the end of The Desolations of Devil's Acre, Jacob talks to his freshly memory-wiped parents for the last time. He tells them that he is no longer angry at them, understanding that they could not have expected and did not sign up for dealing with Jacob's peculiarness, although they could have tried harder and been more open minded. Jacob also tells them that he is leaving them and the normal world. Although suffering from the side effects of being memory-wiped, Franklin says goodbye and good luck. In the moment before they exchange a final "love you," Jacob feels like he and his father are a million miles apart and as close as they'd ever been.

Abraham Portman

Although he was his father, Franklin always had a difficult relationship with Abraham. This was because Abraham was absent for much of his life, out hunting hollows (though Franklin thought they were regular business and hunting trips, etc). While drinking at the pub, Franklin tells Jacob that he thinks Abe went on these trips to deal with the pressure of having to be a father, but not knowing how. He also tells Jacob that "even when [Abe] was around, it was like he wasn't." Franklin, at least as a child, also believed that nothing could frighten his father.

Franklin only wanted a normal father, and did not want to believe that Abe was not an ordinary person.

Trivia

  • The picture of the bunny boy (Franklin) was supposedly taken during Halloween, but the date on the photo states it was taken during June.
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