Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2011

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-11

Chapters 12-17

Chapters 18-22

Chapters 23-27

Chapters 28-31

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Water

Water is a potent symbol: It purifies and cleanses, and no living thing can exist without it. When Peter is in the Just Deserts, the lack of water is one of the great dangers he and Sir Tode face. However, water’s power can also destroy. In the novel, large bodies of water frequently menace and threaten Peter. Peter is found floating in the sea as an infant, in danger of drowning; he is raised in a port town where his mentor abuses him. When he first uses the golden eyes, he almost drowns in a lake full of magical wish bottles. Later, we learn that Incarnadine’s grand plan is to flood the chasm that separates the palace from the Just Deserts, using it to sail forth in conquest. Only through heroic effort does this flood ultimately purify the kingdom instead of doom it, cleansing it of the king’s evil and freeing the minds and souls of its enslaved subjects.

The vast expanse of the ocean also suggests unlimited possibilities. When Peter and Sir Tode set forth on their quest, the sea stretches out to the horizon. They see not danger but adventure. Water carries Peter to the Vanished Kingdom and to a new life. Likewise, when Sir Tode asks Peter to accompany him on his quest to reverse the curse, Peter looks out across the sea “stretching into forever. There was a song in the waves that he had known his whole life” (380). For Peter, water is as necessary to life as air. It calls to him, beckoning him toward a life of adventure.

The Fantastic Eyes

Peter cannot see the outside world, the residents of Peter’s port town see in him only a helpless, blind boy—a deception Peter uses to his advantage, slipping through crowds and lifting wallets unnoticed. However, when Peter earns the six magical eyes, they unlock his potential, revealing not a petty thief but a prince of noble lineage. The eyes, while magic, are really just useful tools. They serve Peter in times of crisis—Professor Cake insists he only use them when he knows the time is right—but their real magic is empowering Peter to believe in himself.

Locks

Peter’s world is filled with locks, none of which present too great a challenge for the world’s greatest thief after the tutelage of Mr. Seamus. When Peter encounters the challenge of Mr. Pound’s locked carriage, his skills are more than up to the task. He passes the test and finds his way into a strange and marvelous new world. Locks—like bars and gates—keep the outside world from getting in; or, in the case of the Vanished Kingdom, the king’s subjects from getting out. Peter’s ability to break through locks gives him unique access and allows him to save the kingdom by disabling Incarnadine’s armor.

Clocks and Maps

Clocks and maps measure nebulous concepts like time and space, quantifying abstract concepts and transforming them into mechanisms with gears and cogs or into lines on a piece of paper. Without sight, Peter has to build a working clock and internal map of his environment: While the rest of the world simply looks at a clock to tell the time, Peter must rely on the heat of the sun’s position in the sky or the chiming of a clock tower bell. This self-reliance allows Peter to bypass clocks and maps that are flawed. He can explore the unmapped areas in Professor Cake’s map, or understand the functioning of Incarnadine’s armor despite the vicious blades that would prevent a sighted person from seeing the clockwork inside. At the end of the novel, Peter’s reward is the ability to adventure with Sir Tode in uncharted waters, creating new maps as they venture beyond the known.