41 pages • 1 hour read
E. NesbitFive Children and It
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Importance of Responsibility When Using Power
The siblings in Five Children and It give little thought to their wishes and, in fact, sometimes wish in clichés, one of the motifs of the novel. Their wishes, however, not only fail to benefit them but also get them in trouble. Nesbit is employing a theme found in the stories of many cultures, classified by folklorists as the “Magician and His Pupil” type. The story of the sorcerer’s apprentice, who bewitches a broom to do his work but can’t stop it from multiplying, belongs to this folklore type. The moral is that one should take responsibility when given power. In Five Children and It, the children never take the time to think through their wishes or their consequences, and so the magic continually betrays them.
As the story goes along, the children take more care in crafting their wishes, setting rules around them such as making sure the servants don’t notice and taking turns. However, when they are in the throes of anger or disappointment, they break their own rules. This is especially true of the two boys. Robert and Cyril’s thoughtless wishes twice get their baby brother into deep trouble, like when Robert wishes that everyone would want the Lamb in Chapter 3 and when Cyril wishes that the baby would grow up in Chapter 9.
Anthea’s wishes for beauty and wings don’t cause a great deal of trouble; when the children are beautiful, they lose their dinner, and the wings lead them to an encounter with the kind vicar and his wife. They do not, however, leave the children any better off. As Cyril says in Chapter 8, they are not any “forrarder” (better off) as a result. As the symbol of tradition and common sense in the novel, the Psammead constantly complains that the children’s wishes are never useful.
Jane is the only one who makes a wish that will benefit someone other than the children: her mother. In a case of situational irony, this wish has the direst consequences of any that the children have made, and this ultimately leads to them having to give up the wishes altogether. Still, the wish leads to a happy ending, with law and order restored. Mother is safe, and—as her mention of buying the girls’ autumn school dresses suggests—the children will eventually head back to London and the ordinary adventures of school and family life. These experiences altogether teach the children about taking responsibility for their actions, particularly when given power with which they’re unfamiliar.
The Difference Between Childish Whims and Genuine Needs
The children mature by learning the difference between wants and needs. Not only do their actions impact each other, but they also have consequences for other adults and townspeople. Their wishes for money—which manifest through wishes for gold, currency, and jewels and the plan to display the giant-sized Robert—suit a childish perspective on what is valuable and thus desirable. However, they fail to consider that this will impact others around them, such as the lady whose lost jewels Jane wishes would be given to their mother. These experiences show that what they originally wanted may not have been as valuable as the things that are withheld from them as a consequence of their wishes. For example, they not only lose small things like dinner but also lose their sense of safety and security, as they are put in dangerous situations and nearly arrested.
Another two occasions where they must face what they need as opposed to want are the wishes related to the Lamb. When they first wish that everyone would want the Lamb—as it may be a common passing desire for older siblings that their bothersome younger sibling be removed from their presence—they discover that they would actually be bereft if someone were to take away their baby sibling. Later, when the Lamb is wished into an adult, they are again faced with his loss. They learn that while they sometimes want to be free of his natural infantile behavior, such as being noisy and breaking objects, they need to protect him and value his presence in their life.
The siege of their residence is a major example of what is needed in life versus what is wanted. When Robert wishes that a desire of one of the other children would be fulfilled, a childish fantasy of an enemy attack on the home is brought to life, playing on common pretend scenarios of battles. The children’s lives are placed in serious danger by the battle, with the consequences of this play-pretend situation made known. They are relieved when the wish disappears at the end of the day, with their lives no longer in danger, and they appreciate the importance of their safety and the lack of conflict in their life. These various wishes prove the real-world consequences of their childish desires, allowing them to mature and realize what they really need in life.
The Relativity of Justice and Moral Codes
Having disposed of the children’s parents in Chapter 1, Nesbit is free to portray the children as their own arbiters of justice. While they are not above breaking the law, they have their own version of justice, valuing honesty and fairness above all else.
The children steal when they are hungry or need to cover up their magic, but they are conscious that they are doing wrong. As Cyril says, “Stealing is stealing even if you’ve got wings” (88). When they steal from the vicar’s kitchen, they leave money to pay for the food, and Cyril refrains from taking the most delicious items. Anthea breaks into the missionary box to have a reason to send the Lamb off with Martha in Chapter 10, but “the weight of a burglared missionary-box” lies “like lead upon her conscience” (184). They also try to repay their debts, as when Anthea secretly sends stamps to the baker from whom they have taken buns.
Their desire to be truthful creates a particularly great deal of humorous double speak. For example, when Cyril tells Bill in Chapter 8 that the giant version of Robert must be left alone at sundown, he explains that “a sort of change comes over” his brother and “you’d hardly know him” (157). Cyril is the only one of the children who never tries to tell an adult about the Sand-fairy’s existence. Instead, he tells half-truths about the parts of their adventures that any adult might believe. Even Jane has the presence of mind to tell the vicar and his wife, “It’s all true, but it’s not the whole truth. We can’t tell you that” (109).
Fairness and honor are paramount to the children. They decide to take turns with their wishes, even though they also forget. Great scorn is reserved for the baker’s boy, who hits Robert even though Robert is smaller than he is. Yet when Robert, grown to giant size, goes off to teach the boy a lesson, Cyril says, “Don’t hit a chap littler than yourself, old man” (145). In valuing honor, they hate any sort of pretense. Cyril says that he hates “sneakish ways” and “humbugging” (pretending to feel something one does not).
Although they squabble, the siblings also defend each other fiercely when called for, as when Jane must darn her stockings and the others are “not such sneaks as to abandon a comrade in misfortune” (57). They are their own little band, a concept emphasized by the fact that the author never reveals their ages or their last name. The effect of their complicated morality and loyalty is to make the children both believable and heroic in their own way. Overall, while they may break the law or commonly held standards of morality, they still maintain a moral code. This not only makes them more appealing as characters but also creates a believable foundation of thoughtfulness and empathy on which they can mature and learn the lessons of responsibility given throughout the story.
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By E. Nesbit
