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
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BetaChapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
As Amy walks along the road, she waits for her environment to look like the Oz from the movie, but the landscape remains sickly and gray. She wonders if the “she” the boy mentioned was Dorothy and what mistakes she made. Around a bend in the road, Amy arrives at an abandoned town with a statue of Dorothy, complete with a “pair of glittering silver shoes on its feet” (38).
A girl in Goth clothes and makeup appears from one of the houses. She introduces herself as Indigo and proceeds to mock Amy until she realizes Amy is from the same place as Dorothy. A clanking sound comes from somewhere in the distance, and Indigo looks nervous. She walks away, telling Amy to “get your ass back to wherever it is you came from and hope you never wind up in this sorry place again” (42). Amy asks what happened because this isn’t the Oz she’s familiar with, and Indigo points to the statue, saying “Dorothy happened.”
Chapter 5 Summary
Amy comes upon a group of munchkins digging for something while Glinda oversees their work. Amazed to see Glinda in the flesh, Amy gets closer, only to realize the Munchkins are crying. Glinda tells them not to be upset because “what we do, we do for the good of Oz” (47), but the wide smile stretched across her face doesn’t move as she speaks.
Indigo followed Amy, and she explains that Glinda’s smile is perma-smile—a type of makeup that leaves the wearer’s lips in a constant smile. Claiming Amy won’t survive without her, Indigo invites her to tag along until they get to the Emerald City as long as Amy does what she says. Amy agrees. She casts a long glance at Glinda before Star nudges her to catch up with Indigo, realizing that “sometimes you just have to trust your pet rat’s instincts” (51).
Chapter 6 Summary
The munchkins were magic mining. Magic lives in the ground, and Glinda and Dorothy have been digging up as much of it as possible, leaving Oz a wasteland. The story Amy knows about Dorothy is only part of what happened. After Dorothy returned to Kansas, she found it wasn’t what she wanted, so someone, possibly Glinda, brought her back. Glinda allied with Dorothy because, from a witch’s perspective, Dorothy killed the witches of the East and West. Amy asks what happened to the witch of the North, and Indigo tells her to stop asking questions. After a long silence, Indigo explains she used to be enslaved to dig for magic.
Up ahead, they find one of the flying monkeys hanging upside-down from a post, its wings removed. Beneath its head, a sign reads “for the Crime of Sass, This Monkey Is Hereby Sentenced to Official Attitude Adjustment” (60). It’s unclear how long the monkey has been there, but it’s covered in blood and makes terrible pained screeching sounds. Indigo begs Amy to keep moving, but Amy can’t bear to leave the creature there. She unties the monkey, and Indigo offers it water from her canteen. The monkey thanks them and introduces himself as Ollie.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
These chapters continue mirroring the Wizard of Oz. In the movie, Dorothy collected companions along her journey down the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City, where she asked the Wizard to send her back to Kansas. The Scarecrow, Tin Man (the Tin Woodman in the film), and Cowardly Lion (simply Lion in Dorothy Must Die) each asked the Wizard for something they didn’t have, which led to the movie’s happy ending. By contrast, Amy’s journey down the road is not joyful, and her only goal is to figure out what to do next. Unlike Dorothy’s companions, Indigo is lukewarm about traveling with Amy. Ollie calls to the Tin Man. In the movie, Dorothy rescued the Tin Man by spraying his joints with oil after he’d rusted in a rainstorm. Amy saves Ollie from the punishment exacted upon him by Dorothy, showing more of the novel’s dystopian world and Dorothy’s tyrannical laws.
At the novel’s end, The Wizard explains how each item Dorothy’s companions sought has led to them being twisted by Dorothy and Oz’s magic. The Scarecrow desired a brain. In the movie, the Wizard gave the Scarecrow a diploma—a physical manifestation of gained knowledge. The Tin Man wanted a heart, so the Wizard offered him a ticking device that mimicked a heartbeat. The Lion sought courage and was given a medal—physical evidence of his bravery. In Dorothy Must Die, these three characters are corrupted by what they once sought, and each has become a nightmare version of their original character, obsessed or controlled by that thing. However, by the end of the book, the Wizard does not explain how his role in giving the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Lion what they wanted might have contributed to the downfall of Oz. The Wizard also gave Dorothy what she wanted—a life back in Kansas. It is never said how Dorothy returned to Oz in Dorothy Must Die, but the Wizard’s gift to Dorothy also led to Dorothy becoming corrupt. These four instances of wishes being granted may hint at power within Oz that twists wishes away from what they were originally intended to grant.
Chapter 5 provides background on how Oz is different from the familiar story. Rather than a kind force in the land, Glinda is a puppet who does Dorothy’s bidding, even though Dorothy’s desire for more magic destroys the land. Glinda’s treatment of the Munchkins and assurance that they work for the good of Oz place the novel in the dystopian genre. Glinda makes it sound as if the magic mining and terrible working conditions are something the Munchkins should be thankful for, and she implies that all is well in Oz thanks to their sacrifice. In reality, the elite few of Oz live in luxury as the land’s inhabitants suffer or are enslaved, a hallmark of the dystopian genre.
Amy’s initial excitement to see Glinda shows the power of “good” figures in media. Glinda’s character from the books and movie makes her someone to trust and seek help from as well as a celebrity. Though Glinda forcing the Munchkins to work is bad, Amy’s prior understanding of Glinda doesn’t let her see the truth and almost puts her in a dangerous situation. Amy’s image of Glinda is challenged by the perma-smile Glinda wears. The unnatural smile gives Glinda an ominous quality, and Amy’s instincts override what she believes is true from media interpretations of the witch. With additional information provided by Indigo, Amy’s illusion of Glinda as a good witch shatters, and Amy starts to see Oz for the place it is rather than the place she wants it to be.
