35 pages • 1 hour read
Abby HanlonDory Fantasmagory
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | 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
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BetaThemes
Shifting Sibling Dynamics
This story revolves around the relationship between Dory and her two older siblings. The power dynamics in the siblings’ relationships primarily reflect their ages. Children often see older kids as role models and want to emulate them. Older kids in turn construct games that allow younger kids to try out more advanced and complex forms of play. Violet is the oldest and retains the most power over her younger siblings. Luke looks up to her and longs to be included, allowing Violet to boss him around and assign him roles in her imaginary games. Luke also tends to echo what Violet says, especially when it comes to diminishing Dory. Because Violet is so dismissive, Luke must be dismissive to maintain his privileged position in Violet’s eyes. Dory, desperate to be included, even turns around and dismisses her imaginary friend Mary when she has (or thinks she has) an opportunity to play with Violet. The dynamic reflects a hierarchy with Violet at the top and Mary at the bottom, with each kid constantly trying to maintain their position. Mary, Dory’s imaginary friend, was in part invented so that Dory has dominance over another and can maintain a voice of authority.
Generally facing a double rejection from her two siblings, Dory pushes harder and harder to win their attention. Dory seldom shows empathy in the sense of understanding others’ needs, and she cannot perceive that her erratic behaviors are pushing her siblings away. When they attempt to frighten her out of her annoying behavior, Dory refuses to let the idea of Mrs. Gobble Gracker go and is not afraid. For a brief moment, it was a game she could play with Violet and Luke. Dory does not fully understand that her efforts alienate her siblings and further solidify their judgment that she is too immature. Dory is caught in a cycle of effort and rejection with her siblings.
The power structure shifts when Dory starts playing the game where she impersonates a dog. Luke softens up and begins engaging with Dory on her level, playing with her, petting her, and indulging in the rules of the game. Dory is so happy to receive this attention from Luke that she again takes it too far, refusing to drop the dog persona even when her mom takes her to the doctor. This episode demonstrates how valuable sibling attention is for Dory. She doesn’t fully know how to effectively channel her excitement, so she overcommits to the dog game, hoping to extend the connection with Luke.
Dory’s character arc is complete when she finally shows signs of an empathetic connection with her siblings, becoming attentive to what they may want and how they may feel. Dory breaks free of her imaginative state to find the doll for Violet, genuinely determined to address Violet’s needs even at her own expense. She also gives Violet the bouncy ball, a gift that suggests a selfless interaction between the two siblings. Dory finally wins over her siblings by rescuing the bouncy ball from the toilet. Her willingness to do something gross and unpleasant both upholds and subverts the status quo—Dory does the dirty work for her siblings, but she gets to invent the game that they will play. Dory tries hard to design a game that she thinks her siblings will like, taking advantage of this new moment of connection. As the story ends, Dory’s sibling connection and overall happiness is on the mend because of her newfound ability to empathize with and tend to the needs of her siblings.
Defining Maturity
The concept of maturity is repeatedly addressed in Dory Fantasmagory. Dory is frequently branded as “babyish” and “immature” by her parents and siblings. This bothers Dory, as becomes apparent when she begins to discuss with her imaginary friends whether she is what they say she is. Dory doesn’t have a clear picture of what maturity means and her family members all present slightly different takes on the definition of maturity.
Dory’s siblings are the quickest to berate her for being immature. When Dory asks why, Violet and Luke point out that Dory “talk[s] to [herself],” “[has] temper tantrums,” and “[plays] with monsters” (5). “Talking to herself” and “playing with monsters” allude to Dory’s pretend games, equating Dory’s imagination with her immaturity. They also put Dory’s tantrums as a sign in that category, considering her inability to regulate her emotions or behavior to be another sign of immaturity. The reader can deduce that Violet and Luke see maturity as the opposite of Dory, eschewing imaginative games and exercising self-control.
Despite this insinuation, Violet and Luke play plenty of imaginative games themselves. They play “house” and care for Violet’s baby doll. However, Violet and Luke play more socially acceptable games that reaffirm traditional gender roles and “realistic” positions they might conceivably step into when they are adults. Violet and Luke’s game suggests that they (or at least Violet, who leads their play) believe that maturity looks more like conformity; one can be imaginative but only within the parameters of real life. However, it also simply suggests that Dory and her siblings have different interests and prefer certain types of imaginative play.
Dory’s mother approaches maturity in a slightly different way. She operates outside of the logic of play and fantasy. She is responsible for elements of Dory’s life, like getting her dressed and taking her to the doctor, so the stakes of accomplishing these goals are higher. She does not indulge Dory’s imaginative games at all and disciplines Dory for her behavior. She considers Dory’s imaginative play to be “bad,” because it impedes her and Dory’s ability to function in the public sphere. She also expresses embarrassment when Dory acts out in public and misbehaves at the doctor. Dory’s mother presents maturity as an ability to function in public according to the unspoken rules that maintain public decorum.
Dory herself considers whether she is a baby after her siblings reject her. She considers the babyish things she does, like “smell[ing] her bunny” and “suck[ing] her fingers” (66). These are common kid behaviors and show how Dory is developing some self-awareness about where she is developmentally and where she would like to be. She doesn’t yet have the ability to control or change these behaviors, but she is beginning to notice them and longs to be more categorically like her siblings so that they will play with her.
The Incorporation of Imagination Into Narration
This book uses an unconventional narrative style to mimic the way Dory narrativizes the world around her. The book’s epigram defines the word ‘Fantasmagory,” as “a dream-like state where real life and imagination are blurred together” (i). Hovering in this space between fantasy and reality, the narrative takes Dory’s fantasies seriously enough to generate real story and suspense, while also acknowledging Dory’s understanding that this is all in her imagination. The book successfully loosens the narrative logic so that Dory’s perspective is understood by the reader, even when the reader is aware of the underlying reality.
Many of Dory’s fantasies start with a seed of reality. She spots monsters all around the house, in places like the broken drawer, the laundry machine, and the ketchup bottle. All these locations have a degree of mystery or strangeness to them. The broken drawer is an aberration, the kind of thing that signifies to a kid that things break or get hurt. The laundry machine makes strange, irregular movements. The ketchup bottle makes silly, bodily sounds. Dory reinterprets all these as monsters, turning scary, strange, silly stimuli into stories that make sense to her.
Dory also narrativizes things to cope with an emotion that she doesn’t necessarily understand. For example, Dory’s imaginary friend, Mary, is a response to the real-life dynamic between Dory and her siblings. Dory has designed Mary to be constantly available, always interested in playing, and a slightly more scared and docile version of Dory. When Dory feels lonely or rejected by Violet and Luke, she can turn to Mary. When she wants to feel empowered, she can reject Mary, mimicking the way her older siblings exert power over her. When she feels scared of something, she can feel a sense of comfort that Mary is even more afraid.
Dory also channels her feelings about herself into Mr. Nuggy, her fairy godmother. When she feels low, rejected by her siblings and berated by her parents, she conjures Mr. Nuggy, who has the power to transform her into something else. Dory doesn’t quite have the language or self-awareness to change her behavior, but she does understand that she wants something about herself to change. She passes this idea on to Mr. Nuggy, asking him to transform her into fantastical things like a pineapple, and then a dog. Dory’s new dog persona allows her to try a different form of behavior, one where she can avoid scary things like going to the doctor by pretending she doesn’t understand what her mom is saying. The dog persona becomes a means of protection.
Dory’s unique perspective also results in unreliable narration. However, unreliability is unique in this story in that the elements of the truth are still present on the page and the reader can clearly deduce both Dory’s reality and everyone else’s reality. While Dory’s words can’t be taken at face value if one is to understand the concrete happenings in her household, her words are valuable in that the reader can understand her unique perspective, giving the unreliable narration a strong sense of value and importance instead of deception.
