60 pages • 2 hours read
Edward Eager, N. M. Bodecker, Alice HoffmanHalf Magic
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1954A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “What Happened to Mark”
The next morning, Jane sleeps late. Leaving Katharine to scrub the breakfast pans, Martha wanders into Jane’s room and tries, unsuccessfully, to wake her. The cat, Carrie Chapman, follows her. While leaning against Jane’s closet and petting Carrie, Martha feels lonely and sad. As a result, she wishes that the cat could talk. Carrie begins speaking nonsense, which terrifies Martha.
Meanwhile, Mark enters looking for his roller skates. Martha grabs Mark and tells him that she is magical because she made the cat speak. Mark brushes this off and goes to find his skates in Jane’s shoe bag. Carries speaks gibberish, and even though Mark is startled, he claims that she is just having a fit. In fact, when Martha compares this situation to yesterday’s events, Mark says that it is all just a coincidence and that they are “just a lot of crazy girls” (32). He leaves Martha to go skating.
Martha asks the cat another question. When she responds in gibberish, Martha runs to find Katharine. The older girl hugs Martha when she listens to the cat’s discourse, and they inch toward Jane’s room. The cat paces and speaks in an angry tone because she cannot articulate her thoughts clearly.
Once they manage to wake Jane and she hears the cat speak, the elder girl demands to know if a wish was made. Martha admits guilt. When Jane asks how she found the charm, Martha is confused. Jane explains about the so-called nickel and surmises that Martha must have leaned against the shoe bag. She continues, revealing her theory that the charm only grants half wishes—a small fire, their mother stuck halfway home, and a cat that speaks gibberish. As a result, they should wish for double what they want in the future.
In her authoritative way, Jane takes control. She insists they make a plan. When the cat interjects mournfully, the girls feel sympathy, not fear. Jane vows to help her, but when she attempts to retrieve the charm, it is missing.
Panic ensues until the girls realize the charm must be in Mark’s skates. After evading Miss Bick, the girls search the neighborhood for their brother, getting odd stares when people hear Carrie mutter nonsense.
Meanwhile, Mark skates around, wishing it were sunny. Instantly, the sun emerges, but only halfway from behind the clouds. Bored, he wishes the skates would go faster, and he notices that his speed slightly increases. He also wishes his friends were home and playing baseball, and as he thinks this, he sees ghosts playing in the field nearby. Flying by Mrs. Hudson’s house, he longs for the iron dog statue to come to life. He thinks he hears a muffled bark and an effort to wag its tail, but he chalks it up to his imagination. Then he skates to the school playground hoping to find a friend.
The girls run by Mrs. Hudson’s yard, and Carrie jumps out of Martha’s arms, speeding straight to the iron dog. When the statue growls and struggles to move forward, they deduce that Mark has been there. Martha scoops up the cat, and they run toward the school.
When Mark arrives at the playground, it is empty. As he hangs upside down on the trapeze bar, his sisters arrive. Relieved, Jane asks what he is up to. Mark responds that he wishes they were all on a desert island.
Instantly, the trapeze disappears, and Mark falls to the ground. More surprised than his sisters, he sees sand everywhere and a bright hot sun in the sky. Jane explains that he got half his wish—just the desert part. She tells him to take off his skates, so she can get them back home. Mark is reluctant, so to make him understand, they explain everything.
When Mark takes off his second skate, the coin flies out, causing the four to search the sand. Even Carrie helps. After almost 15 minutes, the siblings are arguing, hot, and still have not found the charm.
As Martha complains of thirst, a worn-looking caravan arrives, with one Arab man driving three tired camels. They decide they are in the Sahara Desert and call to the man, who redirects his course toward them. As the man approaches, he is described as ugly and crafty, and the kids dislike his smile, judging him on his appearance. They attempt to communicate with the man, Achmed, and he beckons for them to follow him. Jane insists they stay and look for the charm, but Katharine thinks they may find a way to telegraph their mother if they accompany him. As they argue, the man pushes Jane toward a camel. Mark proposes that they leave the skates so they can find this spot again.
Mark and Achmed help the girls onto the camels, and they walk as the girls ride. Jane and Katharine enjoy the ride, but Martha gets off because she is nauseous from the motion. After a while, Martha is tired, and Mark carries her.
Mark does not trust Achmed. Carrie converses with one of the camels, and then runs to Mark and Martha, making gibberish noises that the kids interpret as “Achmed,” “wicked,” “kidnap,” and “ransom.” When Martha cries, Mark tries to soothe her by saying they’ll escape. Suddenly, they see the oasis and stop for food and water. When Martha removes her shoes, Mark spies the charm and snatches it out of the air.
Achmed also spots the charm, and he no longer seems scary but rather upset. He claims the children have stolen a sacred charm and demands that they return it. When Achmed grapples with Mark, the boy wishes the man a half mile away. Now at a distance, Achmed begins running toward the children.
Jane demands the charm to get them home. However, Mark considers that it may belong to Achmed and his race. He reflects on the mistreatment of native people throughout history. The girls understand the injustice but argue that Achmed was planning to kidnap them. Mark notes that they should be kind to their enemies. Then Mark wishes for Achmed to have twice as much as he deserves. Instantly, Achmed’s situation transforms. Five strong camels with new harnesses appear, his packs bulge with goods, and a wife and six children stand by his side. Achmed halts and rejoices in a prayer of thanks.
Now that Achmed is content, Mark wishes they travel twice as far as home. Within seconds, they sit on their front steps. Then, going to Mrs. Hudson’s house, they restore the iron dog to its statue state. Next, after many bungled attempts, they retract Carrie’s ability to speak and restore her purr.
The children return home, tired, but happy. Miss Bick tells their mother that they were gone all day. Their mother scolds them, saying that children have gone missing from camps, and even some of Mark’s friends were found halfway between camp and home. After dinner, the kids gather, and Mark makes another wish to help his friends return to camp. Promising to be more careful, they hide the charm under a floorboard and discuss more sensible wishes for the future.
Chapter 3 Analysis
The theme of The Paradox of Wishing is further developed in this chapter, especially as the children learn how the charm works. Because it grants only half wishes, the children have the power to alter things, but if not done carefully, they or others are limited by these wishes. For example, when Martha yearns for Carrie, the cat, to speak, she is still ignorant of the charm and its capabilities; as a result, the cat only half talks, conversing in gibberish. (The cat’s name is a reference to Carrie Chapman Catt, an American suffragist who founded the League of Women Voters in 1920.) Furthermore, when Mark longs for a desert island, “desert there certainly was, but no welcome sight of distant waves graced the horizon” (43). This outcome results in limited resources and renders the adventure more challenging. However limiting the children’s desires may be, sometimes they have a power beyond initial expectations. For example, Mark’s compassion toward Achmed shows the power wishes have to help not only ourselves but others. These varied experiences at home and in the desert demonstrate how the magic can be simultaneously restrictive and liberating.
Along with this paradox is the theme of The Need for Precise Language and Clear Thinking. As the children learn how to double their wishes, they must not act too fast, and they must be thoughtful about how they word their wishes. When Mark considers Achmed’s situation and not just his biased judgments of the man, he becomes more judicious in his use of the charm. As Achmed runs toward them, Mark “sp[eaks] aloud a wish he had thought out very carefully” (52). The result of Mark’s clear thinking is that Achmed receives his heart’s desire: a family and wealth. Additionally, the children gain the time needed to get themselves home. Mark’s precise language and thoughtfulness earn them more than one wish, emphasizing just how significant precision and clarity are. Later, when the children return home, Mark reiterates the idea when he says, “We have to be careful from now on […] We don’t want any more mistakes. That could have been bad” (56-57). Acknowledging his own mistake in wishing for his friends to be home, Mark recognizes that they cannot be impulsive in their use of the charm. Through both his words and actions, Mark illuminates the need for precise language and clear thinking.
In the children’s interactions with Achmed, the text presents Orientalist and antisemitic racial tropes. Initially, they view Achmed, an Arab man, in a negative light: “The ragged Arab’s expression was crafty, and definitely unattractive. As he came to a stop before them he smiled, which made him look more unpleasant than ever” (45). The children view Achmed as dangerous and untrustworthy, common stereotypes of Asian and Middle Eastern people held by Westerners in the 1920s and 1950s. This stereotype is debunked when Mark considers that Westerns have likely stolen the coin, as Achmed claims, because “people used to be unjust to natives in the olden days” (51). While Mark’s thoughts and actions reflect a more compassionate view toward Achmed that upends the stereotype, they situate imperialist injustice—the looting of antiquities by the British and other Western powers—in the far past, exculpating the novel’s present day.
Antisemitism is present in the illustration of Achmed, who is depicted as a stooped man whose head covering falls over his eyes, exposing a comically large nose. He speaks in broken English, such as when he says, “Western children follow Achmed” (46). Further stereotypes include the gibberish the cat speaks when it is warning the children: “Fitzachmed, fitzwicked! Fitzkidnap! Ransomowitz!” (49). This is a parody of Irish surnames that use the prefix “Fitz” and Yiddish surnames that use the suffix “owitz.” The characterization of these words as comedic nonsense further demonstrates outdated cultural and racial stereotypes in the text.
This chapter also reinforces outdated views of women. For example, when Martha first tells Mark about the talking cat, even after he hears Carrie’s gibberish, Mark scoffs, “Just a lot of crazy girls” (32). The use of “crazy” underscores the assumptions that women and girls are excessively emotional. Historically in patriarchal societies, the word “hysteria” has been applied primarily to women, for it stems from the Greek word for uterus. In calling the girls crazy, Mark draws on this history of dismissing women’s views as less reasonable. Along the same lines, naming a cat that speaks gibberish after a women’s rights activist could be interpreted as a parody of what happens when women are given a “voice.” The entire chapter reinforces the notion that Mark, the only white male, is the only rational actor, for once he knows of the charm’s existence and capabilities, he is the one who carefully thinks through his wishes and achieves the group’s goals with his thoughtfulness.
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