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51 pages 1 hour read

Kate DiCamillo

The Magician's Elephant

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2009

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Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 5 Summary

The citizens of Baltese are fascinated by the elephant. Bakers create an elephant-ear dessert. Hawkers sell pieces of the opera-house roof. Puppet shows feature the elephant. People dance a new elephant dance. Preachers talk about the elephant in their sermons. Fortunetellers decree that the elephant’s arrival signifies that something even more momentous will happen.

Irritated by the attention the elephant is receiving, the countess Quintet believes the elephant is ruining the Baltese social season and, primarily, deflecting attention from her. To her annoyance, she was not at the opera house when the elephant appeared, and so she insists the elephant is nothing special. Her husband did see the elephant’s arrival and was profoundly moved but knows the countess will not listen to his feelings. He suggests that she acquire the elephant so that she will again be the center of society. Countess Quintet buys the elephant. She pays for a new opera house roof, donates to the policeman’s fund, and offers to help Madam LaVaughn take legal action against the magician. Countess Quintet commissions an elephant-sized door for their house, and the captain of police gladly transfers the elephant to her. The nobility flock to see the elephant in the countess’s ballroom.

Chapter 6 Summary

Peter dreams of running through a sunny wheat field to catch Vilna Lutz but loses sight of him in the rapidly growing wheat. Peter decides to stay amidst the protective golden wheat until he notices a door. He opens the door to the apartment where he lived with his parents. He follows the sound of crying and finds a baby in the bedroom. Peter holds and comforts the baby while looking out at the bright wheat field. When Peter wakes, he knows that the dream was true: He had held and comforted Adele when she was little, and Adele is alive. This means the fortuneteller told the truth, and the elephant must be the way to find Adele. Peter will ask Leo Matienne to help him see the elephant.

Near Peter’s apartment, in the gloomy Orphanage of the Sisters of Perpetual Light, Adele dreams that the elephant knocks at the door. Sister Marie is the orphanage’s official doorperson. As Sister of the Door, her job is to take in orphans, and she opens the door to the elephant, who politely states that she has come to take Adele where she belongs. Sister Marie regretfully responds that she cannot understand what the elephant is trying to say. She closes the door. Adele calls out to Madam Elephant, but she walks away, becoming smaller. Snow falls, covering everything in the city except Adele.

Chapter 7 Summary

As the miserable, cold, dark, snowless winter continues, the common people grow disgruntled that only the nobility gets to see the elephant while they are kept out by the locked door. The elephant is desperately unhappy. She keeps her eyes closed and mentally tries to make the crowded, noisy, smelly ballroom disappear.

Countess Quintet strategically announces one day for the populace to view the elephant gratis and to appreciate her generosity. Leo Matienne reads this news cheerfully aloud, saying a boy he knows will be happy. A beggar turns his words into a song. Leo wonders what will happen when the countess tires of the elephant, or the elephant rebels. Peter, leaning out his attic window, waits for Leo to come home. Peter’s face lights up when Leo tells him he will see the elephant. Vilna Lutz, as typical, tells Peter it is winter, it is cold, and to shut the window.

Chapter 8 Summary

Adele dreams again that the elephant knocks at the orphanage door, but Sister Marie is not there, and no one answers. Adele finds Sister Marie asleep in her chair. Sister Marie awakens and is glad to see Adele and to hear about Adele’s dreams. Sister Marie has not dreamed of the elephant but hopes to: Such dreams are “moving” and “portentous.” Sister Marie declares she is always at her post and never turns anyone away. The door is always open; people need only knock. Sister Marie recalls the night a midwife brought Adele, just born, to the orphanage. Sister Marie held Adele and said her name, and Adele’s smile seemed to flood the room with light. Sister Marie assures Adele that every creature has a name, including the elephant.

Thomas the beggar sits outside the orphanage with his big black dog, Iddo. Thomas does not remember his last name, or his family, but he does know how to make everyday occurrences into uplifting songs. Iddo does remember his past: He was a message carrier during the war until an explosion caused a head injury that blinded him. Distraught he can no longer do his life’s work, Iddo dreams of carrying one last important message.

Alone in the dark ballroom, the elephant repeats her name to herself, reminding herself of the family who knows and loves her.

Chapters 5-8 Analysis

DiCamillo expands on themes of belonging and the importance of hope in these chapters as readers empathize with the estrangement of Adele, the elephant, and other characters, and Peter’s hope is revitalized. Names take on special significance in this section, conferring belonging and connecting characters to each other, their families, and their pasts. Contrasting symbols of light and dark continue to represent the differences between hope and apathy, while doors symbolically indicate both access and restriction for the characters. The unpleasant countess Quintet takes shape as the novel’s antagonist, and DiCamillo touches on the issue of societal division. Finally, the novel reveals more classic fairy tale elements.

Dreams play an important role in this section, inspiring characters to action and revealing more of their hopes and desires. Peter’s revelatory dream reawakens a family memory, restores his faith that Adele lives, and re-inspires Peter to seek the elephant. The dream renews Peter’s hope and sense of purpose. It shows him the truth, which has already changed for Peter. Peter believes that the elephant has the power to undo a long-ago wrong. The elephant, like many magical components in fairy tales, represents Peter’s desires.

The dream elephant also reflects Adele’s feelings of helplessness and her yearning to belong. She tells Sister Marie that the elephant is taking Adele “to where she is, after all, belonged” (71), affirming to Adele, like Peter, that she has a home, a place of belonging somewhere. Iddo’s dream, though not of the elephant, poignantly reveals his own desire to belong: to return to the messenger work he loved, which gave him a sense of connection and pride.

The citizens of Baltese pin their own hopes and desires on the elephant, the only bright spot in a dark, bitter winter. The elephant represents possibilities. Count Quintet is moved to tears by her appearance and the feeling of hope that she inspires in him: that things are seldom what they seem. Things can change, as the truth changed for Peter. The countess Quintet, in contrast, does not see the possibility inherent in the elephant. She calls the elephant a “smelly, loathsome beast” (57), while others find her “strange and lovely and promising” (75). Countess Quintet’s refusal to see the extraordinary shows her closed-mindedness, selfishness, jealousy, and unwillingness to change. Her possession of the elephant is an obstacle that protagonist Peter will need to overcome in his quest to find Adele: another characteristic of the fairy tale.

The elephant inspires creativity. She spawns puppet shows, dances, and new pastries. The elephant also highlights class division. The countess Quintet uses her wealth to possess the elephant and further her own social status among the nobility, leaving the grumbling working class with only one limited opportunity to access the elephant. Her actions reveal inequity between the social classes. The presence of royalty or nobility is also common in fairy tales.

For all the hopes and emotions that people attach to the elephant, the elephant herself is emotionally isolated, cut off from her family much like Adele and Peter. She struggles to maintain her sense of self and belonging. The elephant repeats her name to maintain her family ties, much as Adele likes to hear the story of her arrival at the orphanage: to feel attachment. Names allow characters to be truly known and loved. Sister Marie believes that every creature is named and therefore known to God. Names authentically connect characters to each other and the divine, giving them a sense of community and belonging.

Reunification with family is the object of Peter’s and Adele’s hopes, but Leo Matienne and Gloria also wish for a family. Unable to have children, Gloria sadly but practically accepts that having a family is impossible for them. Leo, in contrast, will not give up on the possibility. His “what if” in this instance reveals his willingness to keep hoping despite discouragement. He believes anything is possible. Leo sees how Peter’s face lights up like the sun when his hope of seeing the elephant is realized.

This section features many references to doors, which represent both opportunity and imprisonment: openings and barriers to possibility. Peter’s dream door opens to a truthful memory and the possibility of finding Adele. The countess’s elephant-sized door, in contrast, is closed, keeping the elephant prisoner and excluding the hoi polloi. The door at the orphanage, staffed by Sister Marie, is always unlocked, and she will never turn anyone away, but Adele is essentially trapped there, and a lack of communication keeps the dream elephant out. Sister Marie’s assurance that visitors need only to knock for admittance reflects a biblical belief that those questioning or seeking help need only to ask. This concept will feature more strongly in chapters to come.

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