70 pages • 2 hours read
Danielle PaigeDorothy Must Die
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 31-34Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary
The next morning, Amy is promoted to Dorothy’s new lady-in-waiting because the Wizard put in a good word for her. The previous lady-in-waiting is in the infirmary after the Lion’s appetite got overzealous; once the Scarecrow fixes her, she’ll join the Tin Woodman’s soldiers. Jellia leads Amy to Dorothy’s chamber, where she gives her a hairbrush and warns her, “Don’t touch the shoes” (313).
Dorothy’s room is colored in every shade of pink imaginable, and Toto runs in a circle, chasing his tail. They find Dorothy in her closet, which is bigger than the bedroom and full of clothes that all have a blue checkered pattern. Dorothy is at the very back, wearing a blue checkered nightgown and her red shoes. The shoes call to Amy with promises of power. She nearly touches them before Jellia pulls her back. Amy is frightened by the shoe’s effect.
As Amy brushes Dorothy’s hair, Jellia applies polish to the nails of Dorothy’s surprisingly gnarled hands. Jellia spills a drop of the nail polish, sending Dorothy into a quiet rage that’s part anger and part joy at getting to punish someone. She sends Jellia after a mouse that scurried under some clothes. Jellia retrieves the animal, and Dorothy forces her. Looking uncomfortable, Jellia complies and, at Dorothy’s order, puts the dead mouse in her apron pocket to “remind you of what happens when you disappoint me the way you did today” (326).
Chapter 32 Summary
The next day, Amy is demoted back to a regular maid, and the sun sets early, giving Dorothy extra time to sleep for the big party the following evening. Amy brings straw up to the Scarecrow’s room, where she finds Ollie picking the lock. Ollie attacks her but recognizes her scent and is overjoyed to see she’s alive, which turns to distrust when he learns she’s working with the witches. The monkeys don’t trust the witches’ binding magic, making Amy wonder if she’s acting of her own free will.
Ollie is in the palace to rescue his sister, who’s part of the Scarecrow’s latest experiment. Ollie repeats the words about sacrifice that the Wizard said a couple of days ago. They are the motto of the Wingless Ones and a reminder of “how much we have sacrificed for others, and how much we have lost because of it” (336). Amy offers to help free Ollie’s sister, even though the witches wouldn’t approve. Reluctantly, Ollie agrees and scampers out a window.
Chapter 33 Summary
Amy pretends to be sick to get out of chores for the rest of the day. She uses the magic painting to search for Ollie’s sister and finds her strapped down in the Scarecrow’s laboratory beneath the aviary in the palace greenhouse. She’ll draw out the Scarecrow by setting his room in the palace on fire and remembers what the Wicked Witch of the West said in the Wizard of Oz: “How about a little fire, Scarecrow?” (345).
Chapter 34 Summary
The next day, Amy steals the palace keys from Jellia. Using her magic dagger, she slices one of the oil lamps near the Scarecrow’s room and starts a fire before rushing outside. As soon as the Scarecrow leaves the greenhouse, she enters and goes to the aviary, where she finds the door to the laboratory hidden in the bird bath. The Scarecrow’s laboratory is full of machines and tables with restraints. Amy frees Ollie’s sister in time to hear the Scarecrow yelling from the other side of the door. Gripping the monkey’s hand, Amy visualizes the royal gardens and casts a travel spell, praying it will work. She feels “the magic pulling [her] apart,” and then the laboratory is gone (359).
Chapters 31-34 Analysis
Dorothy’s room in the palace symbolizes how much Dorothy has changed from the farmgirl in the original story. Rather than a simple life with simple things, Dorothy lives in luxury with plush rugs and a wardrobe fit for a queen. Despite how much she’s changed her living conditions, all her clothes have the blue checkered pattern of the dress she wore when she arrived in Oz. This either means that Dorothy is paying homage to the day that changed her life or that, deep down, part of her is still the girl from Kansas who’s been corrupted by magic.
The pull Amy feels toward Dorothy’s red shoes supports the idea that Dorothy has been corrupted by magic. The shoes may have a specific power over people from Kansas. Since Jellia knows who Amy is, her warning may be specific to Amy because Jellia knows the effect the shoes will have on her. This may mean the witches also know the shoes’ effect and kept this information from Amy for unknown reasons. The shoes make Amy wonder what it would be like to have Dorothy’s power and make Amy certain that taking them will solve all her problems. If this effect is specific to Amy and Dorothy, it questions where the shoes came from and why their magic is so targeted. In Chapter 4, the statue of Dorothy had silver, rather than red, shoes, which means there may be another pair of magic shoes or that the silver shoes turned red due to corrupted magic. Dorothy’s youthful appearance, except for her hands, implies that magic, possibly from the shoes, has a price—she may remain youthful except for this one part of her. It also suggests that Dorothy arrived in Oz much longer ago than Amy might have thought.
In Chapter 32, Dorothy makes the sun set at midday, which shows how much influence she has over the land. Dorothy uses intimidation and violence to keep the people in line. Regulating the time of sunrise and sunset is a more insidious and subtle form of control that leaves the people dependent on Dorothy for sunlight. Dorothy doesn’t change the time with any predictability, just another way the people are left wondering what might befall them next.
The events of these chapters are another turning point for Amy. After watching Dorothy mistreat Jellia for such a small mistake, Amy realizes she isn’t the oppressed person she was in Kansas. She has the power to help others, and Jellia is her motivation to choose what causes are worth committing to. Her decision to help Ollie ultimately causes the witches’ plans to falter, but Amy has no regrets because Ollie is her friend and his family is just as important as saving Oz. Helping Ollie makes Amy brave enough to sneak back to the sitting room with the enchanted painting, even though she was almost caught last time.
Ollie’s distrust of the witches shows that, even among the oppressed, some groups disagree. This hints at an element common to second books in a dystopian series—the protagonist’s discovery that the rebel group they were working with didn’t have the entire story or the best interests of its members in mind. The monkeys distrust the witches’ binding magic, making Amy question whether she’s working of her own free will. She never discovers whether the binding spell keeps her rooted to their cause, but given Glamora’s plot to bring Amy and Nox together to keep Amy with them, it is unlikely that the binding spell is strong enough on its own to manipulate Amy’s decisions.
