Circus Mirandus

Mystery and Magic continues to function as a pivotal theme in these final chapters. Mystery is sustained for the reader as to the nature of Ephraim’s miracle. The reader learns that “only one thing stood in the way of Ephraim’s miracle. The manager,” increasing intrigue around the unspecified mystery (378-79). The sense of intrigue is heightened when Chintzy reveals the Lightbender’s mysterious postscript about the miracle: “[D]on’t look down” (385). The relevance of these words is revealed when Micah confronts the canyon, and the miracle, which was alluded to in the novel’s exposition and drove the plot, is finally revealed in the closing chapter. Mystery and magic remain intrinsically intertwined; the mysteries in the novel are always magical, such as Ephraim’s wish for Micah to access his inner powers and live at the traveling circus.

Ephraim is further characterized as a kind and wholly good character in the fact that he uses his miracle for Micah, instead of himself. In the novel, good characters align themselves symbolically with the magic and silliness of Circus Mirandus. Ephraim epitomizes this when he does not scold Micah for floating into the circus on the inflatable gorilla:

‘I won’t tell you that you shouldn’t have done it,’ Grandpa Ephraim said at last, and Micah guessed that the Lightbender must have told him about his adventure with the gorilla balloon. ‘Because it was a ridiculous, amazing thing to do, and once in a while, it’s good to be ridiculous and amazing’ (364).

Ephraim, with his lifelong love of Circus Mirandus, nurtures playfulness and magic in Micah, even at the end of his life.

Circus Mirandus’s mission, to instill faith in magic in children, is epitomized in Jenny, whose earlier rigidity is replaced with open-minded trust. Jenny moves from one side of the Imagination Versus Rigidity spectrum to the other. This is illustrated when she accepts Micah’s word that what she sees as a fire truck is actually the Lightbender’s illusion to disguise Jean: “Jenny stared. Then she shrugged. ‘Magic is going to take some getting used to’” (376). Instead of demanding to understand everything through the lens of science and logic, Jenny finally accepts that some things are inconceivable.

On the other hand, Gertrudis remains firmly entrenched in rigidity and loathes all references to magic. When Micah implores her, “Don’t you want magic to be real?”, Gertrudis firmly replies, “I don’t want to cling to infantile fantasies” (390-91). Victoria’s impact on Gertrudis is clear in Gertrudis’s embitterment toward the world of magic. While this backstory lends her character sympathy, her actions still harm Micah, such as when she hurries him from his grandfather’s grave, throws out all of the detritus of their shared, happy life, and demands that he cuts the string on his wrist which symbolically links him to his grandfather. She also reveals her miserliness when she tells Jenny, “We can’t afford the long-distance fees” (382), after Jenny promises, at Ephraim’s funeral, to call Micah often. Gertrudis’s determination to make Micah’s life miserable is almost hyperbolic at this moment—she attempts to cut him off from his only friend while at the graveside of his beloved grandfather. Gertrudis’s cheap nature is further revealed in the fact that Ephraim is buried in the “cheapest casket and the cheapest tombstone that Aunt Gertrudis could find” (381). Ephraim’s cheap casket contrasts with his generosity of spirit; the two siblings continue to be juxtaposed as stereotypically opposing “kind” and “mean” forces in Micah’s life.

Poetic justice is achieved for the protagonist, Micah, who gets to live a joyful and magical life at Circus Mirandus rather than living with Gertrudis in Arizona. The Lightbender and Micah’s ride back to Circus Mirandus from the highway on the back of Big Jean the elephant alludes to the nature of Micah’s new, unusual, and magical life.