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Five Children and It….question about the ending (spoiler)
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If you haven’t read this yet and don’t want me to spoil the ending, please don’t read! =)
We just finished this one, and the last chapter is very confusing to all of us. All of the prior wishes disappeared at sunset, so then why did Anthea’s last wishes not disapper as well? We are led to believe that they are permanent wishes that will last forever. I’ve scoured the internet and I’m not coming up with anything.
Thanks for any insight. My daughter is having a hard time with this ending.
My children’s and my recollection is that they made an agreement — one more wish that lasts in return for not asking for any more wishes.
Nebby
I can’t remember most of what we read (sad, I hope my kids have a better memory). Anyhow, I asked my son and he agreed w/ Nebby.
Mandi
Yes, that sound right…
(Unfortunately, I’ve also seen the movie, which was quite different, including the ending…. – so I don’t remember what the final wish was…)
I just reread the last part. I can’t completely clear things up, but here are my thoughts. Major spoiler alert!
The deal that the girls made was that if the Psammead would give them all their wishes that day (ie. more than one in a day), they would never wish for anything after that day. I don’t think It had any control over how long the wishes last, so that doesn’t seem to be part of the deal.
In most of the chapters (as far as I remember), a physical change was made that then was undone when the sun set. However, most of the children’s last wishes were things like ‘Mother won’t get to the police station’ and ‘the diamonds would not be lost’ and ‘people will forget everything’. These are things that would happen once, but the results would be lasting. Once you’ve forgotten, you’ve forgotten. Once the diamonds were ‘unlost’ and put away safely, they stayed that way. Just like the result of the Children having wings was that they ended up in the tower. The wings were gone, but the result was still there.
Two wishes seem to break the pattern, though. The Psammead wished that the children would not be able to EVER tell anyone about It. They didn’t just forget, though. In some way, they were made unable to tell, even though they remembered. It’s not clear why that one lasted. Then the girls wished that they would see the Psammead again someday. Although I suppose you could argue that this wish wasn’t even granted yet until someday they were able to meet ‘It’ again, so perhaps that could be explained away. I agree, though, that the Psammead’s own wish is a bit of a departure from the ‘rules’ laid out in the book. Unfortunately in fantasy, that sometimes happens – some things just can’t be explained logically. My daughter and I didn’t notice this apparent incongruity when we read it, but it would make for an interesting discussion!
Joanne
i have been thinking about this and remembered that the gold coins the children wished for that were given to others to pay for things remained. I wonder if the very sutle point being made was that the wishes that were given away to others were the ones that remianed while the ones the children wished for themselves ended badly.
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