68 pages • 2 hours read
Elijah of Buxton
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Chapters 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Most Exciting Night of My Life So Far”
The Preacher asks Elijah the next day if he is still willing to help the Settlement. He shows Elijah an advertisement for a traveling carnival that promises music, games, treats, “freaks of nature” (105), and medicines. Elijah tells the Preacher that Ma and Pa would forbid attendance, but the Preacher mentions how Elijah and Cooter go into the woods at night without permission. Elijah knows he’s been “painted in a corner” (105) by the Preacher, but he doesn’t entirely mind, as the carnival sounds fascinating.
Arriving at the carnival, Elijah and the Preacher first go to the tent of Madame Sabbar, who, according to the huckster announcing the show, eliminated the moth lion population of the jungles of Sweden with her slingshot. After Madame Sabbar hits many bullseyes, the huckster tells the audience that a young tribal chief, MaWee, is out to get Madame Sabbar. A boy in a skirt of leaves points a spear at the woman and goes behind a barrier with numbered holes. The huckster blindfolds Madame Sabbar, and the audience yells out the number of the hole in which MaWee appears. Elijah is shocked to recognize MaWee as a white student in his class, Jimmy Blassingame from Chatham.
After Madame shoots several grapes at Jimmy’s head, one accidentally goes down his throat. The huckster saves him from choking. The sight of the grape flying out of Jimmy’s mouth makes the audience laugh, but Jimmy sits on the stage and cries. Elijah and the Preacher do not applaud for the act.
Chapter 9 Summary: “The Mesmerist and Sammy”
Elijah and the Preacher leave Madame Sabbar’s tent and go to the main part of the carnival. The colors, banners, smells, and sounds overwhelm Elijah. He shakes with excitement and trepidation at the strange pictures on the banners: a man who is half-alligator, a woman with extra appendages growing from her neck, a man with lightning bolts coming from his eyes. The Preacher takes Elijah into the tent of a mesmerist. Elijah protests, afraid, but the Preacher tells him he must “learn about how a flimflam works” (121).
Elijah meets a white boy, Samuel, as the mesmerist takes the stage. Samuel tells Elijah that the mesmerist can’t really make people float. The mesmerist picks Samuel to hypnotize. He makes Samuel sleep and then has him introduce himself, cluck like a chicken, and clear himself a seat in the sand. The mesmerist tells the hypnotized Samuel to take off his shirt before going in the water. Elijah notices that the laughter in the tent doesn’t sound happy but instead like “the cutting sounds that a pack of hounds makes once they commence to ripping a possum to shreds” (131).
Elijah begins to wonder just how hypnotized Samuel is. The mesmerist tells Samuel he must also remove his pants to go bathing. Samuel has no underwear on, so he stands naked on the stage until the mesmerist covers him with his cape. The act continues with other subjects. The Preacher tells Elijah not to talk when they get to their next stop.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Meeting the Real MaWee!”
At closing time, the Preacher finds the mesmerist and workers waiting to deconstruct the carnival. The mesmerist introduces himself as Sir Charles, a knighted noble from England who owns the carnival. The Preacher tells Sir Charles that Elijah is Ahbo from Africa, son of the dead Chochotes king. The Preacher says that Ahbo’s rock-throwing skills are so precise that he can kill fish as they swim underwater. Sir Charles agrees to a spontaneous competition between Ahbo and Madame Sappar.
On the way to Madame’s tent, a young, unkempt boy tells Elijah that he is the real MaWee. MaWee worries that Elijah will replace him. Elijah learns that Sir Charles bought MaWee in Louisiana for $100. MaWee usually plays his role in the slingshot show, but Sir Charles substituted Jimmy Blassingame in the Chatham show to avoid angering the residents of Buxton.
Elijah beats Madame Sappar in the competition, and Sir Charles offers to buy Ahbo for the carnival. The Preacher redirects the deal to include himself: Both he and Ahbo will travel with the carnival for payment under certain conditions. Before they can agree to terms, however, MaWee begins dismantling the set. The Preacher sees that the “Jungles of Sweden” banner covers the usual signage, which reads “Darkest Africa” and includes a racist reference to MaWee (147).
The Preacher ceases negotiations, and he and Elijah leave. Elijah is mystified, but the Preacher will only say “It wasn’t what I thought it was. […] Forget this happened. It was a bad idea from the start” (147). He makes Elijah repeat MaWee’s story several times. After seeing Elijah home, the Preacher walks back toward the carnival instead of toward his house.
Elijah is shocked to see MaWee at school the next day. MaWee recounts how Elijah’s “friend,” the Preacher, returned to the carnival and took MaWee away by holding two pistols on Sir Charles. MaWee complains and cries; he did not want rescuing. Mr. Travis welcomes the students to school, and in response to MaWee’s impolite greeting, he corrects MaWee gently. Mr. Travis also says that he and MaWee “will be spending a great deal of time together” (153).
Chapters 8-10 Analysis
Elijah shows naïveté several times in these chapters. He has never seen a carnival before; the sights and sounds strike him. Elijah feels nervous just looking at the “freaks of nature” on the banners (105); he tries to flee the mesmerist’s tent. Even after Sammy tells him that no one floats, Elijah isn’t sure if the mesmerist’s powers are for real, and has trouble telling whether the mesmerist truly hypnotizes Sammy or not.
Several power plays exist in these chapters. The Preacher reminds Elijah that he agreed to help the Settlement. The Preacher abuses Elijah’s sense of duty and obligation with this guilt-inducing tactic. Sammy is supposed to be under the control of the mesmerist, but he tells Elijah the mesmerist is fake, taking Sir Charles’s power. Despite his own gullibility, Elijah clearly has the upper hand with his rock-throwing ability, and the slingshot artist Madame Sappar leaves the tent defeated. When Sir Charles offers to purchase Elijah for the carnival, the Preacher is in the power seat and begins to bargain, but when the Preacher sees the overt racism in the show’s usual signage, he pulls out of the deal immediately.
MaWee is another example of the dynamics of power in these chapters. Sir Charles bought him; MaWee refers to Sir Charles as his master; MaWee completes menial tasks like a slave or servant. MaWee doesn’t think of himself as a slave, however, and wants nothing to do with talk of freedom. When MaWee reveals the racist language on the stage sign, he inadvertently eliminates any power that either the Preacher or Sir Charles have over Elijah, because on seeing the words, the Preacher walks away from the deal that would have exploited Elijah. Finally, though the Preacher overpowers and lies to MaWee to rescue him, the Preacher also gives MaWee power through freedom and education.
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