Granted

56 pages • 1 hour read

Granted

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 10

Chapters 11-21

Chapters 22-31

Chapters 32-43

Chapters 44-52

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 44-52Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 44 Summary

Ophelia hurries over to check if Gabe is okay. She examines him and finds him sound asleep. Wading into the creek, she finally retrieves Kasarah’s coin. The coin softly whispers Kasarah’s wish, but beneath the girl’s words, Ophelia hears Gabe’s longing for his father to come home.

Ophelia faces a moral dilemma: She wishes she could fulfill Gabe’s wish, but she realizes that granting his wish would go against the rules. Ophelia apologizes to the sleeping Gabe just as Charlie’s voice calls out from the trees.

Charlie says that Ophelia accidentally triggered the distress signal when the truck hit her. While Squint organized a rescue team, Charlie, acting without permission, followed the wish to save Ophelia. He is astonished to discover that Kasarah’s coin now holds two wishes. Recognizing Ophelia’s inner conflict about which wish to grant, he understands she is torn. Ophelia seeks advice, but Charlie leaves the decision to her. Their conversation is interrupted by Squint, who instructs Ophelia to step away from the coin and drop her vial of fairy dust.

Chapter 45 Summary

Ophelia realizes that the rescue team hasn’t come to rescue her but to clean up her mess. Squint scolds Charlie for arriving without permission, promising consequences later. Then, he directs his anger toward Ophelia. Though he is amazed that the coin now holds a double wish, he is furious that her failure led to this situation.

Squint reminds Ophelia of the rule to grant only the chosen wish. Ophelia mutters that it is unfair, leading Squint to scold her. She argues that there could be another way, but Squint orders the team to restrain Ophelia and Charlie. As Squint bends down to the coin, they hear a howl close by.

Chapter 46 Summary

Sam bursts through the trees, barking wildly. The rescue team scatters, except for Squint. He tells Ophelia to give him the vial so everyone can go home. However, Ophelia finally makes a decision. She will only go home once she grants Gabe’s wish. Squint argues that she is risking everything for a human she does not know, and Ophelia tells him what she knows about Gabe. Squint listens and says he understands; however, he flies off with the wish, saying that it is not worth breaking the rules for.

Ophelia flies after him despite the pain in her broken wing. She rips the coin from Squint, and Charlie catches her before she hits the ground. Sam and Charlie stand guard as Ophelia grants Gabe’s wish.

Chapter 47 Summary

The ritual does not change, but “everything comes at a cost” (283).

Chapter 48 Summary

Ophelia opens her eyes in the infirmary. Nurse Edna Echinacea Pudge explains that they had to put her to sleep to heal her wing and that she has been asleep for three days. Ophelia recalls little after granting the wish, though she remembers being carried by the Emergency Response Team and telling a frantic Sam not to follow her.

Curious about the impact of her choice on the Haven, Ophelia asks Edna if anything has changed. The nurse reassures her that Haven is unharmed; she also suggests she might have made the same choice in Ophelia’s shoes.

Charlie pays a visit, dressed neatly with combed hair, attempting to be on his best behavior. He shares a story about how Squint is annoyed with him for refusing to fulfill an assignment. Charlie was supposed to grant a birthday wish for a 12-year-old, but the child’s behavior was so unpleasant that Charlie could not bring himself to fulfill the wish. As a result, Squint stopped assigning new tasks to Charlie.

Encouraged by Charlie, Ophelia reflects on the fulfillment she experienced after granting Gabe’s wish. Charlie says he is proud of her.

Chapter 49 Summary

Ophelia leaves the infirmary and heads straight to Squint’s office. Squint begins a lecture on Ophelia’s messy work, emphasizing the evidence left behind that required the team’s cleanup. Fortunately, only Ophelia was seriously injured, and they resolved everything without exposing the fairies’ existence. Ophelia inquires about Gabe, and Squint assures her he woke up without issues. When she asks about the wish, Squint reveals that Gabe’s father, Anthony Morales, was injured in an explosion in Iraq. While the injury is not life-threatening, the Marines are sending him home for recovery.

Squint mentions that the fairies are granting more wishes than before, hinting at the need to reconsider the wish-granting process. Despite this, Ophelia must still face consequences for her actions. She is placed on probation for a season, after which she can resume missions. Squint acknowledges her recklessness but admires her perseverance and resourcefulness. Ophelia’s probation begins the following day; before that, she and Charlie have a mission to fulfill Kasarah’s wish.

Chapter 50 Summary

Charlie and Ophelia fly to Kettering, Ohio. They have Kasarah’s address and some supplies but no fairy dust. While passing the fountain by the mall, Ophelia hopes the old man who first took Kasarah’s coin makes a wish she can grant. Charlie guides her past the fountain to a junkyard. There, he brings out a yellow bike, worn but still functional. Ophelia expresses her gratitude but points out that Kasarah specifically requested a purple bike. Charlie whistles, and Sam bounds over to them, dropping purple spray paint at their feet.

As they finish painting the bike, it gets dark, and the gates to the junkyard are closed. Charlie takes out a couple of wire cutters and asks if Ophelia minds breaking some rules.

Chapter 51 Summary

Charlie, Ophelia, and Sam carefully roll the bike to Kasarah’s house. Twice, they have to hide from humans, but it is too late at night so hardly anyone is out. Finally, they make it to Kasarah’s house. Charlie pulls out paper and a pencil. Ophelia writes a note to Kasarah, indicating that the bike is for her. Then, Charlie says it is time for them to go home and Sam whimpers. Ophelia tells him they have one more task to do.

Chapter 52 Summary

Charlie and Ophelia ride Sam to the Morales house. Then, Ophelia gives Sam some instructions. Charlie and Ophelia fly into a tree and watch Sam barking at the Moraleses’ door. Anthony opens the door and then Gabe and Anna join him. When the children see Sam, they run to him, telling Anthony they met the dog before. Anthony pets Sam, and Sam licks him before rolling on his back for belly rubs. Anna and Gabe beg to keep Sam. Anthony looks at his wife, who shrugs. Anthony whistles for Sam and brings him inside.

Charlie applauds Ophelia’s wish-granting skills. He asks what she would wish for, but Ophelia says she does not need a wish now. The pair fly home.

Chapters 44-52 Analysis

These final chapters of Granted explore the results of the characters’ actions—the good and the bad. The idea that “everything has a price” becomes evident as the characters make choices and face the outcomes (320). The most important choice that Ophelia makes is deciding which wish to grant, which brings up the theme of The Ethics of Granting Wishes. Since Gabe also wishes on Kasarah’s coin, the two wishes overlap. This unique situation gives Ophelia the freedom to choose which wish to grant, though fairies usually do not have this choice and must follow the choice of the Great Tree. This time, Ophelia has more power. She has felt connected to Gabe ever since she first saw him and noticed the cloud of longing trailing after him: Gabe’s need for his father is so strong that Ophelia can sense it. She also understands that Gabe’s wish impacts him and his entire family; compared to his wish, Kasarah’s wish seems less important, even though someone had stolen her old bike and that incident might have upset her. However, Ophelia decides that making Anthony, Gabe’s father, come home is a much better use of magic than fulfilling Kasarah’s wish. Also, Kasarah’s wish does not require magic to come true, whereas Gabe’s does.

In order to grant Gabe’s wishes, Ophelia has to break rules established by the fairies’ Granters Guild. She must also disregard the Great Tree’s choice since it had chosen Kasarah’s wish. Though the fairies put these rules in place in order to make the wish-granting process fair, it in fact leads to problems and wrong choices. This shows that Excessive Rigidity Results in Chaos and that rules do not always guarantee fairness and rightness. It is only after Ophelia builds up the courage to break the rules that she is able to make the right decision to fulfill Gabe’s wish. This has several consequences for her. First, she has to confront Squint and wrest the coin away from him, which puts her job and standing in fairy society at risk. Even after granting the wish, Ophelia gets badly injured and faints on the trip back to Haven. The Menders help patch her up, but her broken wing is not as strong as it was before, making her unable to fly as fast. There is hope for her to regain her previous mobility, though it will take time. So, breaking the rules comes with a personal price for Ophelia.

However, she is not the only one who suffers negative consequences as a result of the wish. Anthony Morales, Gabe’s father, also suffers an injury to make Gabe’s wish come true. It is challenging for a Marine to return home from deployment, and Anthony’s return follows an explosion that embeds shrapnel in his shoulder. When Ophelia meets Anthony in person for the first time, she notices their similarities; she thinks, “He has a broken wing . . . and he still found a way to fly home” (317). This similarity between them suggests that magic works in circles, highlighting a connection between Ophelia and the Morales family. It also raises a crucial question about the ethics of wishes: If a person making a wish knows about the sacrifices necessary to grant their wish, would they still make it? Would Kasarah still wish for her bike if she knew a fairy would break her wing and almost die while trying to grant it? Would Gabe still want his father to come home, knowing Anthony would have to endure significant injury in order to do so? The larger question the book wrestles with is whether humans’ lack of awareness about the sacrifices needed for wish-granting free them from responsibility; it doesn’t provide a simple answer to this, leaving it to readers to judge.

Another realization that Ophelia makes in this section is that magic is not always necessary to grant wishes. Despite using magic to fulfill Gabe’s wish, Ophelia still finds herself responsible for Kasarah’s wish. Charlie and Sam help her to do this, using their handiwork and ingenuity to refurbish an old bike; this is a task Ophelia surprisingly enjoys. Feeling guilty for prioritizing Gabe’s wish, she appreciates the opportunity to make amends. Ophelia also ensures that Sam, the dog, finds a home, fulfilling his wish without magic, too. These last two wishes bring Ophelia the same sense of satisfaction or “amaratio” as the magically fulfilled wish. This suggests potential avenues for fairies to grant more wishes in the future without relying solely on magic.

Notably, Ophelia’s actions—of breaking established rules and following her heart when deciding which wish to grant—lead to a surge in magic, causing the Great Tree to drop more wishes than in previous days. This shows that the fairies’ old rules governing wish-granting are ineffective in sustaining magic. When Ophelia departs to the outside world to fulfill Kasarah’s wish, Squint does not bid her farewell because he is busy meeting with other fairies, attempting to establish a new system. This bodes well for the future of the fairies since they are becoming more flexible and adapting to changing needs.