The Night Gardener

The game of Catch as Catch Can in Chapter 14 is an allusion to stories like “Jack and the Beanstalk” and other tales involving giants hunting humans. Molly quotes the well-known “fee-fi-fo-fum” line from the famous tale as she lumbers and searches for the hiding children, and this game of hide-and-seek takes on a deeper and more ominous meaning, as the children’s playful pursuit mirrors the climactic scene of the novel, in which Kip and Alistair will hide from the Night Man. This section of the novel also adds to the mystery of the locked room and further develops Mr. Windsor’s conflicts with money and poor investments. The ring that Constance throws at her husband turns out to be the latest in a long line of rings that are an exact match for the one he gave her on their wedding day. When Constance emerges from the mysterious second-story room with an identical ring on her finger, the narration implies that the original ring was pawned to pay off debts and suggests that the tree’s gifts are genuine replicas of the original.

Constance’s interaction with Molly in the hallway shows how the cursed house and the baleful influence of the tree affect everyone differently. After obtaining a replica of the ring, Constance haltingly says that the ring was a gift from her husband on their wedding day. It may be that Constance is being purposefully vague to keep the secret of the tree and the locked room, but given how Constance’s health declines more quickly than anyone else’s, it is equally likely that her mind is also fading. It may be that she is weakened and confused after interacting with the tree and that she truly believes this new ring to be the one that her husband gave her years ago. By contrast, Penny’s interaction with the tree in Chapter 20 suggests that she is declining less rapidly, for upon receiving a story with an ending she doesn’t like, she demands another story, and this action shows that she still has enough strength to fight and isn’t yet at the point where she’ll take whatever the tree gives her.

Thus, these chapters continue to unravel the supernatural elements of the story. Hester Kettle’s arrival in Chapter 15 serves to reinforce her peripheral presence in the story and foreshadows the importance of her later reappearance. In the current chapter, her story also serves the practical purpose of showing that the tree has been a problem for a long time. The discovery of the night garden in Chapter 16 also hints that in addition to the supernatural threat, there are other less threatening forces at work on the island. No explanation is given for why these flowers grow or for how they got there, and in this way, the author introduces the idea that even in the best of stories, not all loose ends are neatly tied, for stories grow and shift and gain minds of their own.

In an intensification of the surreal events and figures surrounding the tree, Chapter 17 describes the first time the Night Man becomes aware of Kip and Molly. He is alerted to their presence by their voices and appears to look directly at them. However, because he is then unable to find them while standing right beside them, his actions suggest either that Molly and Kip are protected against him somehow or that his senses do not work like a normal human’s do. It may also be that he can only detect people when they are a perceived threat to the tree or its secrets. As long as Molly and Kip don’t move or discuss harming the tree, they remain outside of the Night Man’s awareness. Despite these limitations, the Night Man’s ability to close the barn door without touching it shows how powerful he is. While the author never explains the true nature of his power, the sudden flurries of leaves and the Night Man’s control over the wind and other natural elements imply that his power is inextricably linked to the tree itself.

In a striking intensification of the novel’s supernatural theme, the final two chapters in Part 1 show the tree becoming a direct threat to Kip and Molly’s safety. In Chapter 19, for example, Kip falls into one of the graves and is nearly buried alive. Although it is later revealed that this grave is the appropriate size for Mr. Windsor, the tree’s willingness to capture Kip instead shows that it is content to trap anyone in its grasp. Likewise, the instantly dying flowers represent the death and decay that surround the tree like an evil aura influencing everything in the area. The flowers die immediately because the tree saps their energy for itself, an attribute that renders it almost vampiric and serves as a macabre form of the principle of survival of the fittest. Furthermore, because Kip doesn’t actually see any of the flowers die—he glances away and looks back to see them dead—this dynamic suggests that the tree hides its activities as a form of self-preservation. Following Kip’s discoveries, Chapter 20 outlines the moment in which Molly herself is drawn into the tree’s spiritual trap by accepting its offer of a letter from her deceased parents. The letter is the tree’s way of gaining a hold over her and keeping her on the island, but Molly chooses to believe that the letter is actually from her parents because she is so desperate for them to still be alive. Thus, The Power of Storytelling overwhelms even her good sense in this instance, exposing her to dangers rather than protecting her from them.