The Magician's Elephant

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2009

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 13-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 13 Summary

Peter interrupts Leo Matienne and Gloria at their dinner to ask Leo to take him to the prison to see the magician. Gloria is aghast at Peter’s request and alarmed at how skinny he is. Although Peter insists that he is in a hurry, Leo urges him to come inside to talk and eat. When Peter tastes the warm, rich stew Gloria gives him, he begins to cry, remembering his family and everything he has lost. Leo comforts him, and though overwhelmed by tears again, Peter manages to eat.

Peter tells Leo and Gloria everything. Vilna Lutz was a friend of Peter’s father and fought with him in a war. When Vilna Lutz told Peter’s mother about her husband’s death, she went into labor and died, although Adele lived. A midwife took Adele, and Vilna Lutz took Peter to train as a soldier, lying about Adele. Gloria is furious at Vilna Lutz. Peter explains about the fortuneteller and the elephant and the need for the magician to send the elephant home. Leo Matienne asks, “What if?” but Gloria tells him to stop. Peter also asks, “What if?” Leo believes they must question things if they want to effect change. He will take Peter to the prison. Gloria hugs Peter, saying it would be impossible not to love “a boy so brave and true” (144).

Chapter 14 Summary

The elephant dreams of her homeland and its blue sky and warm sun. She walks quietly with “the boy,” Peter, and is happy.

In his prison cell, the magician obsesses about the elephant and the powerful magic he performed, but he is lonely and would even welcome a visit from Madam LaVaughn. Peter and Leo Matienne visit him, and Peter is disappointed by the magician’s unkempt, desperate appearance. Peter explains why they want him to send the elephant home. The magician laughs at the idea of a “homesick, brokenhearted magic trick” (149).

They hear crying from another cell, and the magician also starts to cry. Peter tells the magician he believes that the magician can fix things. The magician refuses, but Leo Matienne asks, “What if?,” which the magician says is a question that “belongs” to magic. Leo adds that it also applies to the real world. The magician protests that he tried to send the elephant back but admits he did not really want her to go—she represents his greatest achievement. The magician agrees to try. He requires the elephant and Madam LaVaughn. Peter thinks this is impossible, but the magician replies that that is the nature of magic.

Chapter 15 Summary

The pain in her legs keeps Madam LaVaughn from sleeping, so she spends her nights repeating the story of her accident to her staff, describing over and over the fateful evening at the opera house. Hans Ickman goes to the door to speak with a policeman and finds Leo Matienne, who asks, as a personal favor, to see Madam LaVaughn. Hans Ickman refuses until Peter, whom Hans has not yet noticed, also asks. Peter reminds Hans Ickman of himself when he was young and impressionable. He suddenly remembers his little white dog’s name—Rose—and believes immediately that “the impossible is about to happen again” (158). He ushers them inside as it begins to snow. The snow blankets Baltese, covering the opera house, the Apartments Polonaise, countess Quintet’s house, the cathedral, and the orphanage.

Bartok Whynn dreams of carving people instead of gargoyles. He happily creates a boy with a hat, a seated woman with a man behind her, and a mustached man. They all smile at him. Sister Marie dreams of flying and looking down on billions of glowing stars, until she realizes she is flying over the earth and seeing the beautiful “pulses of light” given off by all living creatures. The vision is glorious.

Chapter 16 Summary

Madam LaVaughn is confused as Hans Ickman pushes her through the snowy streets alongside Leo Matienne and Peter. Hans tells her it is time to go back to the prison. Peter explains about the elephant. Madam LaVaughn accepts that the escapade is a little crazy and “irregular” but also “interesting” and full of possibility. The magician frets about having to reverse his magic, then realizes he does not mind: He is lonely, and he longs to love and be loved. He finds the snowfall beautiful and wishes to share the wonder of it with someone.

At the countess Quintet’s home, Hans Ickman, Leo Matienne, and Peter knock futilely at the door, then begin to shout “please.” Bartok Whynn, laughing hysterically all the while, opens the door. He laughs at the reason they are there, and laughingly suggests the countess will kill him if he allows the elephant to escape. Leo suggests that Bartok Whynn can also leave. The stone carver is momentarily still, then recognizes them all as the people he carved in his dream.

The elephant awakens and sees Peter standing in front of her. She knew he would come.

Chapters 13-16 Analysis

The need for love and belonging drives characters in these penultimate chapters, while themes of authentic connection and the power of hope and faith predominate. Peter continues to grow emotionally, while Leo’s perennial “What if?” foreshadows the fulfillment of his and Gloria’s dream.

Peter, overwhelmed by Leo and Gloria’s warmth, directly confronts the hard truth of his losses, presumably for the first time. The death of his family caused the death of love and gentleness in Peter’s life. Vilna Lutz deprives Peter of love, as Gloria recognizes, commenting, “In addition to no love, is there no food in that attic room?” (135). Being hugged brings Peter to tears because he has not experienced the basic comfort of human touch since his parents died. Gloria’s motherly affection warms Peter’s heart but also reminds him of his bitter loss. Fully acknowledging and accepting this loss is a coming of age experience.

Other characters are also cut off from love and connection, which makes them feel depressed and lonely. Peter empathizes with the elephant because she, like him, is separated from her family—and is just as heartbroken. The two intuitively understand each other and connect on an emotional level, without the use of language. The magician, though excessively proud of his powerful act of magic, understands that it has isolated him. Friendless and alone, he realizes that what he wants most of all is connection: someone to love and truly know him. Even stoic Vilna Lutz is emotionally isolated: Peter knows that he sometimes weeps when he thinks Peter is asleep. Bartok Whynn’s hysteria is stilled by the possibility of joining the elephant rescuers, exemplifying the theme of Finding Where You Belong: Being Known and Loved. Sister Marie’s beautiful dream affirms her faith that all God’s creatures share a spark of divinity.

Leo Matienne is the voice of possibility and the power of change—Believing in and Achieving the Impossible. Although Gloria tries to quell his imaginative, hopeful questioning, Leo Matienne understands that one can only effect change by challenging the status quo. Peter’s request for help freeing the elephant is a request to “change the world” (144). Peter exemplifies the fortuneteller’s words that truth is always changing. Peter is working to change the existing truth and improve it. His actions reveal a new decisiveness and maturity. Although initially Peter worries about the magician’s skill, he ultimately maintains his hope that the magician can fix the situation and send the elephant home. Hope is like magic: belief that the impossible can be actualized. Hans Ickman, moved by Peter’s “please,” remembers when he believed in miracles and when the impossible did happen: His little white dog jumped the impossibly wide river. Seeing Peter’s faith restores the memory of his dog’s name and makes him believe that the impossible will happen again. Peter’s belief is infectious. The elephant believes that Peter will save her. Madam LaVaughn believes their snow excursion is mad but pregnant with possibility. Leo and Gloria see Peter’s request, “asking us to make [the world] something different,” as an opportunity for them to make the world different for Peter (143). Readers sense that Leo and Gloria’s own lack of a family will soon be remedied.

In these chapters, DiCamillo again depicts characters knocking at doors, awaiting entry: at Madam LaVaughn’s home and at the elephant door at the home of the countess Quintet. In these chapters, doors continue to represent barriers but also possibilities for change. Outside the countess Quintet’s, Peter recalls the wheat-field door of his dream and wonders if he is “asking to be let into some place that he was not even certain existed” (168). Peter’s requests for admittance reflect his hope and faith that doors will be opened and change will occur. The newly falling snow also indicates positive change. It reflects the setting of Adele’s hopeful dreams, foreshadowing events to come. The snow indicates that the winter’s unrelieved darkness, and its hopelessness, is ending.