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 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Ollie is headed to Emerald City in search of the other Wingless Ones—monkeys who cut off their wings to keep Dorothy from using the magic in the wings to control them. The three start down the road again but are stopped when an elegantly dressed young woman appears before them. The woman is a projected recording of Ozma, Oz’s true leader, which proclaims the end of sadness throughout Oz. No one has seen Ozma in years, and the projection makes Ollie and Indigo sad because “Ozma doesn’t care about us anymore” (67). When the wizard came to Oz, he sent away the young Ozma so she wouldn’t get in his way. After the wizard left, Ozma came back, and things in Oz were wonderful until Dorothy returned. Suddenly, Ozma disappeared, Dorothy took over, and happiness was decreed law of the land as things got worse and worse.
The group reaches a part of the road that spans a moss-covered river without supports. Monkeys patrol the bridge, and Indigo casts a spell to direct their attention away. The group ascends the road until they reach a platform high above the clouds that provides a view of Emerald City’s vast sparkling greatness. Seeing the city makes Amy feel bad for what Oz has become.
The group descends the road into an apple orchard. Amy’s stomach rumbles at the sight of the huge red apples. She goes to pick one, and a tree blinks at her. The trees took a vow of silence because Dorothy determined that talking trees took away from the apple-eating experience. Amy argues the trees have a right to happiness, too, to which Indigo says, “the only happiness that matters is Dorothy’s” (76). Amy plucks two apples from the tree and bites into one, savoring the apple-pie taste for only moments before shadows descend and the Tin Woodman appears.
Chapter 8 Summary
The Tin Woodman looks like a machine cobbled together from spare parts and weapons. Four people who might have been human once accompany him, each with mechanical replacements for parts of their bodies. The Tin Woodman arrests the group for treason. Ollie runs into the trees, and Indigo claims she was bringing Amy to Dorothy. The Tin Woodman shoots a stream of bubbles at Indigo that melts away her skin, leaving “a red splatter of bone and blood” (84). The Tin Woodman’s group drags Amy into the shadows to take her to Dorothy.
Chapter 9 Summary
A moment later, Amy and the Tin Woodman’s group appear in a grand room with windows depicting the familiar story of Dorothy. A flurry of trumpets announces Dorothy’s arrival, who looks like the Dorothy that Amy knows but with a more revealing dress and an airbrushed quality. As she studies Amy, Amy notices the Scarecrow—who, like the Tin Woodman, has been twisted from the movie version—and a vacant-eyed Ozma standing nearby. Finally, Dorothy asks what Amy thinks of her hair. Amy babbles about how shiny it is, adding that Dorothy is famous back in Kansas. Dorothy flies into a rage, calling Amy a liar because “there can only be one” (92). Dorothy is convinced Amy’s there to take her place and sets a trial for Amy’s charge of treason in one week. If she’s found guilty, she “will be sentenced to a Fate Worse Than Death” (93).
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
Chapter 7 is the last chapter where Amy’s story mirrors Dorothy’s. In the movie, the Yellow Brick Road was simply a pathway that led to the Emerald City. In Dorothy Must Die, the Yellow Brick Road is another way Dorothy shows her control. The rising twists of the road may be a way to deter visitors from reaching the city or a test that ensures only people Dorothy deems worthy complete the journey. The platform high above the clouds where Amy pauses to look at the Emerald City is likely placed there on purpose, so travelers get a good look at the city and the greatness of Dorothy that it represents. All of these details in the road feed into Dorothy’s seemingly endless desire for recognition.
The grove of apple trees is similar to the one Dorothy comes across in the movie. Shortly before meeting the Tin Man, Dorothy tried to pick an apple off a tree, only to have the tree reprimand her. Dorothy gets into an argument with the trees and never does get an apple. Dorothy’s order for the trees to remain silent may be her exacting revenge for feeling slighted after how the trees treated her, showing more of her tyranny. The trees were perfectly within their rights to defend their apples, but Dorothy’s desire for control results in her punishing anyone who ever denied her anything. The forced silence of the trees supports the book’s theme of Everyone Deserves the Freedom to Choose. The trees should have the right to decide whether someone picks their apples and whether or not they speak, choices Dorothy takes away.
Indigo’s death in Chapter 8 exemplifies what Oz has become since Dorothy’s rule began. Indigo has not been proven guilty of a crime, but she is sentenced and punished as if she has committed a crime of the highest order. The pretty bubbles that kill her represent how the beauty of the Emerald City hides wickedness. When Amy first sees the bubbles, she is relieved because something so pretty couldn’t be that bad of a punishment, but the devastating way the bubbles kill Indigo shows that beautiful things in Oz, like Dorothy, are the most dangerous. In the Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West arrived to threaten Dorothy after she gathered two companions and tried to pick apples. The Tin Woodman’s arrival here is similar. However, rather than just delivering threats, the Tin Woodman arrests Amy and brings her to Dorothy, showing how wickedness has much greater power than it once did. The capitalizations of “fate” and “death” in the proclamation at the end of Chapter 9 suggest this is a very specific punishment reserved for the worst criminals. It also shows how seriously Dorothy takes punishments by giving them specific names and capitalizing key words to give them more weight.
The story windows in Dorothy’s throne room show how self-centered and vain Dorothy is. Rather than normal windows that show a view to the outside, these windows have been enchanted to show Dorothy’s story, presumably so Dorothy can watch it over and over again. The windows only show the part of the story that Amy is familiar with, which raises questions about why the rest of Dorothy’s history is not on display. This part of Dorothy’s story may be what she wants people to remember, and the following events may paint Dorothy in a less flattering or even criminal light. Magic may prevent later events from being shown because Dorothy has manipulated magic to protect her, including not showing anything that might turn people against her.
