Dory Fantasmagory

The final two chapters of Dory Fantasmagory contain the climax of the story and the resolution. After the episode at the doctor, Dory reaches her emotional low. She no longer feels like playing any games or pretending to be a dog. She feels even worse when she hears her family discussing her bad behavior in the kitchen. She is both excluded from their conversation and ridiculed for her earlier behavior, increasing her sense of isolation in her family unit. Dory’s tendency to narrativize quickly returns, however. She copes with her isolation by imagining that Mrs. Gobble Gracker is in the kitchen with her family as well, eating popcorn and contributing to the general scorn. In this scene, the reader can see that Dory has infused Mrs. Gobble Gracker with some of the qualities of her mother. She imagines Mrs. Gobble Gracker will snatch her up and take her somewhere terrifying and unfun. This idea is a hyperbolized version of what the reader just saw when Dory’s mom had to forcibly drag her to the doctor, a place Dory associates with scary things like shots. Mrs. Gobble Gracker, a creation of her siblings that Dory has given attention and importance to, has taken on her role with her family at the table, and Dory decides she needs to fight Mrs. Gobble Gracker to reclaim her rightful place in her family. This narrative is easier to digest than the truth she previously realized—that she is in trouble, and her family bonds over her unruliness.

Dory attempts to defeat Mrs. Gobble Gracker with an imaginary poison soup but this attempt fails, so Dory convinces Mrs. Gobble Gracker to take baby Cherry instead. At several earlier points in the story, Dory expresses her disdain for baby Cherry, who is often the object of Violet’s affection in place of Dory, her actual sister. After Violet chooses Cherry to play the role of the baby in a game of “house” instead of Dory, Dory growls at the baby doll and promises to retaliate. In this final conflict with Mrs. Gobble Gracker, Dory makes good on her word, sacrificing Cherry, the object of her jealousy and disdain, completing a story arc that gives her room to rejoin her family without the necessity of her imagination—without the logical threat of Mrs. Gobble Gracker around, Dory has room to adapt to her family on her terms, in her own time. 

Dory herself acknowledges this blending of fantasy and reality in the final chapter, when Violet realizes Cherry is missing, removing The Incorporation of Imagination Into Narration. For the first time, Dory explicitly takes a moment where she did something in her pretend narrative and reveals what she “actually” did in real life. She punctures her own “fantasmagory” to recall tossing Cherry out the front door as she pretended to hand her over to Mrs. Gobble Gracker. One of the main themes of this book is the divide between imagination and maturity; Dory’s ability to step outside of her imaginative game to help her sister shows a step toward Dory’s capability of Defining Maturity. Dory is able to admit to Violet that she always knew Mrs. Gobble Gracker was made up and analyzes her own experience of playing the game.  

In this final section, Dory is repeatedly Shifting Sibling Dynamics in her favor. Dory can recognize her effect on those around her when she understands she may be responsible for losing Violet’s favorite doll, Cherry. In her development of empathy and her voluntary detachment from her imaginary world to help her sister, Dory exercises control that she didn’t display earlier in the book. Her fearlessness, disregard for social rules related to politeness or hygiene, and earnest yearning for her siblings’ love and attention finally pay off and forge a moment of connection and collective play with the bouncy ball. All the loose ends of the story are tied up. Mrs. Gobble Gracker has been vanquished both in Dory’s imagination and in the real world. Cherry has been found. Dory has cleaned up her messes and served her time in time out for her bad behavior. Dory’s siblings finally indulge her in a game and allow her to create the rules. Violet allows Dory to play the role of the baby in their game of caveman-themed “house,” undoing the earlier rejection where baby Cherry was chosen instead. Dory finally feels accepted by her siblings, and her imagination provides a way for them to connect. This ending solidifies the author’s view that imagination is not inherently immature or bad, but that self-awareness and reflection create maturity while still leaving room for creativity.