Dorothy Must Die

These chapters are Amy’s first experience in battle, and Gert’s loss is the moment that solidifies Amy’s commitment to ending Dorothy. Gert was the one person among the witches that Amy felt truly comfortable around, and the beginning of Chapter 25 shows Amy’s reaction to losing someone she grew to care about and her uncertainty about what’s to come. Gert’s death also jumpstarts the second half of the story and rising action. Without her power, the witches are in danger, which implies that Gert’s influence was the only thing keeping Dorothy from finding them and possibly also that Gert was the only witch in Oz with enough power to counter Dorothy. The witches’ ability to shift the plan so quickly shows how organized and prepared the group is for unfavorable outcomes.

This is the first time the Lion is shown. Unlike the cowardly but kindly creature in the books and movie, this Lion is enormous. He represents the muscle—one of the critical parts of the tyrannical government in a dystopian novel. While the Scarecrow is the mad scientist creating new weapons for the government and the Tin Woodman is the specialist army force dealing with threats, the Lion’s purpose is to cause terror. His overstated muscles and nighttime attacks keep the people living in fear that their village could be next, and that fear keeps them loyal to Dorothy in the hope that loyalty will keep the Lion away.

Amy’s question at the end of Chapter 22 calls to the difference between being alive and living. The witches have spent years preparing to defeat Dorothy and save Oz, and Amy wonders what they have lost in the process. While they have gained one another as allies and possibly as friends, they have been reduced to living in a magical underground bunker and filling their days with tactical preparations and training. They are alive and striving for a better tomorrow, but as they do, they lose the present to a life dedicated to the future. Similarly, Nox has spent his entire life training to defeat Dorothy. He isn’t sure who he would be without the rebellion, and he literally lives to liberate Oz. It’s unclear what will happen to Nox once Dorothy is defeated. If he doesn’t find who he is without the cause, he may lose himself without something to give him purpose.

The kiss between Amy and Nox in Chapter 25 is the moment of closeness before allegiances are challenged and plans go awry, another key element of the dystopian novel. Often, a kiss symbolizes that the romantic couple is about to be torn apart, possibly not reuniting before the book’s end. Though Nox does visit Dorothy at the palace, it is only after Amy helps Ollie, and their reunion is the only reminder of everything the witches stand for. Nox’s admission here that he wanted to kiss Amy and is glad he did so shows that he doesn’t expect everything to go to plan. Amy’s servant disguise symbolizes the way her character changes through the rest of the book. Hiding beneath someone else’s face makes it difficult for Amy to remember all that she is, even as she learns so much about herself while the disguise is in place. Kissing Nox while disguised foreshadows how the two do not come back together before the book ends.