The Magician's Nephew | Chapter 14: The Planting of the Tree

Chapter Summary:

The chapter opens with Aslan congratulating Digory on a successful journey. Aslan tells Digory to throw the apple toward the river bank, and he does so.

While preparing for the coronation of King Frank (the Cabby) and Queen Helen (his wife), Aslan asks the Talking Beasts to release Uncle Andrew from a naturally-constructed cage. (We learn that Uncle Andrew has spent the last 48 hours captive by the Talking Beasts, who want to show him to Aslan.) Aslan explains to Digory and Polly that Uncle Andrew cannot hear his voice. Mercifully, Aslan tells Uncle Andrew to sleep, and he does.

Dwarves then set to work making crowns for the King and Queen using a golden tree (grown from Uncle Andrew's coins that fell from his pockets). 

Suddenly, everyone notices the newly-sprouted tree that has grown by the river. Aslan explains that the Witch won't come within 100 miles of the tree. Polly and Digory tell Aslan that the Witch has already eaten a silver apple--and Aslan says that this will indeed give the Witch endless days (but at great cost).

Aslan also explains why Digory's difficult choices were the correct ones. Indeed, deciding not to follow the Witch's temptations saved significant grief for Narnia, Digory, and his mother. Aslan gives Digory permission to pick a silver apple from the tree to give to his mother, and Digory does so.

Reflection:

What we learn in this chapter is what we--as readers--had likely suspected all along. Intention is what matters when it comes to the silver apples of Narnia. Aslan explains how the apples work in the following passage:

"'For the fruit always work--it must work--but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be. And the Witch tempted you to do another thing, my son, did she not?' 

'Yes, Aslan. She wanted me to take an apple home to Mother.' 

'Understand, then, that it would have healed her; but not to your joy or hers. The day would have come when both you and she would have looked back and said it would have been better to die in that illness'" (p. 69).

As we can see from the passage above, the fruit itself does not create good or evil situations, but it becomes a product of why it has been picked. If picked and used for the wrong reason--or even for seemingly the correct but ultimately selfish reason--then a negative situation results. If Digory had tried to prevent his mother's death by curing her illness, the result would have been regret and remorse by both he and his mother. As Aslan says earlier, the fruit always works ("thing always work according to their nature" [p. 69]), but the result is not always what a person truly desires. Essentially, the theological lesson here is that things always work out well when it's God's plan, but things will certainly go awry when a person proceeds without God's guidance (or intentionally sidesteps God's plan). By healing his mother by his own choosing, Digory would be playing God. Now that he can do so with Aslan's permission, he is following Aslan's plan, not his own.

The Witch, on the other hand, will soon discover the long-term consequences of having eaten one of the silver apples. Aslan says that "she has won her heart's desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not always like it" (p. 69). It seems the Narnian stage has been set for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Further up and further in.