The Magician’s Nephew

“No great wisdom can be reached with sacrifice”

Summary:

Set in the past times of London, young Diggory Kirke meets his new neighbour Polly Plummer. Playing in her backyard, Polly sees Diggory peering over the fence, face grimy with dirt. The two become fast friends and decide to spend some time together and play. In the row of houses that they live in, there is a tunnel in the rafters that connects all the houses in a row together. The two new friends decide to explore the tunnel down to an old, abandoned house. After walking through the tunnel, the two fall into a room, but it wasn’t the room of the abandoned house. Instead, they are in the attic with Uncle Andrew, a Magician. There, Polly is tricked into touching a ring and is sent to another world. Diggory soon follows with the purpose of returning the two home.

Diggory then arrives in the Wood between the Worlds, a calm and relaxing place where he can feel life growing. When he arrives, he briefly forgets who he is, however, after seeing Polly, the two remember their purpose. Before returning to their own world, the two venture into another world, a place where the world was on its last hours. There, Diggory awakens a Witch, and sets the two new friends on an unforeseeable adventure.   

Characters:

 Digory Kirke is a kind and honourable young boy who is also adventurous and impulsive. He proves that he is honourable when he goes to save Polly and continues to stick by her through the novel. He proves that he is impulsive and curious when he ends up hitting the bell that awakens the witch because he was curious what would happen.  Polly Plummer is Digory’s neighbour and friend. She too is adventurous and curious about the possibility of other worlds though she is definitely the more level headed of the two kids as she is the one who decides to mark which of the pools they had used and also decided to check to make sure they could return home. She is also the one who does not trust the witch when they first meet which turns out to be the smart belief. Uncle Andrew is a selfish and mean, old man who thinks he is superior to all because he is a magician. Though he claims he wants to explore the other world we soon see that he in fact wanted to exploit the other world and is not very adventurous at all. He is willing to trick the children and put them in danger which shows what type of man he is.