Chapter 27 Summary & Analysis: The Talking Monkey Oporos

Spoiler notice: This page contains details about the 27th chapter of Gregory Maguire’s Elphie (chapter title: “24”). If you have not read the book and prefer to avoid spoilers, please stop here.

Summary

The chapter opens with Elphie teasing Nessa about hexing objects around camp, daring her to try stealing Nanny’s pills. Frex arrives to kiss them goodnight and announces that Melena is having a baby that night, telling the girls not to be frightened if they hear noises. Elphie and Nessa share a silent look that questions whether their own births were “worth it.”

After Nessa falls asleep, Elphie slips outside. Ti’imit has built up the fire to deter jungle cats. She sings softly to keep hostile forces at bay, and out of the shadows steps the polter-monkey. To Elphie’s shock, it speaks. The monkey insists that her singing draws it near and that she is “the hexing one.” Never having met a talking Animal, Elphie wonders if she is dreaming—or if she somehow gave the creature a tongue.

The monkey introduces itself as Oporos, explaining that its clan has been scattered by cats and that it hides near the camp for safety. Elphie objects that Animals without owners cannot have names, but Oporos counters that it is not a pet. It knows her name is Elphaba. When Elphie asks why it has been stealing and returning items, Oporos says it was trying to get her to notice it, since calling her name would risk being shot by her father, who “doesn’t like Monkeys who talk.”

Oporos reveals that Frex has tried to persuade his people to accept the faith, but they were not open to persuasion. They liked the stories of winged angels, but when they asked if they could have wings if they joined the church, Frex said no. Asked why wings matter, Oporos replies that with wings his kind could escape the cats, survive, and know more. Elphie adopts a mocking tone, asking if she is meant to hex up wings. Oporos says no, but if she sings, the fire will keep the cats away and her song will “lift” him. He hands her a marsh plum and adds, “There’s more than one way to cast a hex.”

While Elphie puzzles over the statement, Melena cries out from the birthing tent. When Elphie turns back, Oporos has vanished. Barefoot on the damp ground, she returns to her cot, realizing how late the night has grown.

Key Events

Elphie and Nessa banter about hexing; Frex reveals that Melena is in labor.
After Nessa sleeps, Elphie goes outside alone and sings to the fire.
The polter-monkey speaks for the first time, naming itself Oporos.
Oporos explains it has been leaving and retrieving items to gain Elphie’s notice.
Oporos discloses that Frex has preached to the Monkeys and refused them wings.
Oporos asks Elphie to keep singing, linking her song to protection and a kind of lifting.
Elphie receives a marsh plum and a cryptic lesson about hexing before the monkey vanishes at the sound of Melena’s labor pain.

Character Development

Elphie’s curiosity and sharp tongue stand out as she interrogates Oporos. She is both awed and mistrustful, half convinced she has dreamed the encounter yet already analyzing what it means. Her discovery that her father has interacted with sentient Animals and kept it hidden shakes her trust and deepens her awareness of the larger world.

Nessa’s confusion between hexing and petty theft underscores the girls’ sheltered, rural innocence, while their shared glance after Frex’s remark about worth raises quiet doubt about their father’s certainties.

Oporos’s appearance grafts a new branch onto the family tree of hidden knowledge. The monkey’s longing for wings—to escape predators and survive—gives animal desperation a voice, and its sly gift of the plum hints at a form of teaching that will shape Elphie’s understanding of magic.

Themes, Symbols, and Motifs

Hexing and Song: Elphie’s singing is repeatedly framed as a form of hexing, blurring the line between passive music and active magic.
Talking Animals: Oporos’s ability to speak challenges Elphie’s assumptions about Animals and suggests a hidden population with its own grievances.
Wings and Survival: The monkey’s desire for wings symbolizes the yearning to escape oppression (the cats) and to gain knowledge and autonomy.
Secrets and Prejudice: Frex’s concealed interactions with the Monkeys and his refusal to grant them wings expose familial hypocrisy and a prejudice that Elphie is only beginning to glimpse.
Gifts and Exchange: The marsh plum, given without an obvious demand, represents a different kind of hex—one rooted in connection rather than in coercion.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 27 (“24”) marks the first appearance of the talking monkey Oporos, a figure who will become pivotal to Elphie’s story. Set on the night of Shell’s birth, the encounter knots the supernatural with a domestic milestone, planting the seeds of Elphie’s later activism for Animal rights. It reveals the existence of thinking, desiring Animals who have already been touched—and disappointed—by human religion. Oporos’s lesson about hexing, delivered through a simple plum and an invitation to sing, shifts Elphie’s understanding of her own power from the idea of a tool to a relationship, and it hints that her magic is tied to attention, empathy, and the willingness to listen.

Study Questions and Answers

How does Oporos’s conversation alter Elphie’s view of her father? Elphie learns that Frex has tried to preach to talking Monkeys and denied them something they deeply desired—wings. She had no idea her father ever encountered such beings, and the secret suggests he is capable of hiding uncomfortable truths. This discovery plants doubt about Frex’s moral reliability and exposes a gap between his pious public self and his private actions.
What does Oporos mean when he says, “There’s more than one way to cast a hex,” and how does the marsh plum illustrate that idea? Oporos suggests that a hex need not be a direct, manipulative spell. The plum is a gift, an offering meant to create a bond. By accepting it, Elphie enters a quiet exchange that might be as powerful as a recited charm. The statement also points to her singing, which Oporos claims already keeps the cats away and lifts his spirit—an effect achieved without deliberate incantation.
Why does Oporos risk revealing himself to Elphie, and what does he hope to gain? He risks being shot by Frex or driven off because he is isolated, grieving his scattered clan, and drawn by Elphie’s voice. He hopes for companionship and, more practically, for the protection her singing provides against the jungle cats. Beyond safety, he seems to seek a shared understanding—someone who will notice, listen, and perhaps one day act on the injustice his people suffer.