Five Children and It · Chapter
Wings explained
The children enjoy a day of gift-giving from Uncle Richard, then Anthea wakes early to consult the Psammead alone.
What happens
The children enjoy a day of gift-giving from Uncle Richard, then Anthea wakes early to consult the Psammead alone. She learns about the dangers of wishing for wings but decides to try anyway. The children wish for wings and fly over the countryside, stopping to eat plums from an orchard, where they pay the frightened farmer. They experience the joy and peril of flight.
Themes in this chapter
Wish Fulfillment and Its Consequences
The children's wish for wings brings joy but also danger, as the Psammead warns of the risk of turning to stone at sunset.
The Value of Imagination and Play
The children's flight represents the power of imagination and the thrill of play, as they explore the world from above.
Truth and Deception
The children hide the Psammead from Uncle Richard, and later justify stealing plums by pretending to be birds.
Characters to notice
- Anthea
Anthea wakes at five, consults the Psammead alone, and leads the wish for wings.
- Cyril
Cyril comments on the flying experience and questions the morality of stealing plums.
- Jane
Jane argues that having wings makes them birds, so stealing plums is permissible.
- Robert
Robert chooses a Nineveh puzzle at the shop, foreshadowing the Psammead's story.
- The Psammead
The Psammead warns Anthea about the dangers of flying at sunset and tells a story of a Ninevite boy.
- Uncle Richard
Uncle Richard takes the children shopping and on a boat ride, but they do not tell him about the Psammead.
Key passages
“It is very wise to let children choose exactly what they like, because they are very foolish and inexperienced, and sometimes they will choose a really instructive thing without meaning to.”
Allowing children to pick their own gifts is wise because their inexperience sometimes leads them to accidentally choose something educational.
The narrator comments on the irony of children's choices, as Robert picks a Nineveh puzzle.
“All the words in the English Dictionary, and in the Greek Lexicon as well, are, I find, of no use at all to tell you exactly what it feels like to be flying, so I will not try.”
No language can fully capture the sensation of flight, so the narrator declines to describe it.
The narrator emphasizes the ineffable joy of flying.
“If you've got wings you're a bird, and no one minds birds breaking the commandments.”
Having wings makes you a bird, and birds are not punished for stealing fruit.
Jane uses this logic to justify eating the plums.