70 pages • 2 hours read
Dorothy Must Die
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BetaChapters 19-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary
The next day, Amy doesn’t do much better in her lessons. In her room, there’s a trunk of dresses with a note from Glamora instructing her to wear one, and a bat leads her to a magnificent ballroom with a floor made of glass that shows rushing water beneath. Glamora instructs Nox and Amy to dance. To Amy’s surprise, Nox takes the lesson seriously, and she breathes in his scent, which is “fresh and alive and full of magic” (185).
Asking why Amy thinks she’s too good for the witches, Nox drops details from her life in Kansas, referring to her as trailer trash just like Madison did. Anger erupts inside Amy, and suddenly she’s across the room from Nox, red bolts shooting from her hands. Nox rushes to touch her and brings them outside to the mountain beneath a night sky full of strange constellations.
Amy is still angry with her mother and feels betrayed by what the witches just did. They know all her secrets while she knows none of theirs. Nox tells her how he lost his entire village in a flood Glinda caused. He spent years scavenging to survive until Mombi rescued him and brought him to the witches, where he’s trained ever since. He knows Amy can be powerful if she learns who she is, so Amy opens herself to the magic and transforms her anger and sadness into fire. Impressed, Nox leads her back inside, but she doesn’t take his hand because she’d “rather fall down in the dark” (195).
Chapter 20 Summary
Gert apologizes for hurting Amy but not for using her emotions against her. Using her scrying pool, Gert shows Amy’s mom, who looks surprisingly put together. Her mom hugs one of Amy’s sweaters to her chest, which makes Amy angry because she spent years trying to straighten out her mom, and “the thing that finally made it happen was getting rid of me” (199). Gert explains that Amy doesn’t have to be angry to do magic, but Amy isn’t interested. Everyone in her life has hurt her, and anger is working for her better than forgiveness ever has.
Later, Amy overhears Gert and Glamora talking about her. Glamora fears the force that brought Amy to Oz is stronger than the binding spell holding Amy to the witches, and she plans to push Nox and Amy together, so romance will make Amy stay. Amy runs away before she can hear any more. She doesn’t have feelings for Nox, and she’s sure he doesn’t have them for her either.
Chapter 21 Summary
Melindra and Annabel, the girls from the dining room, are in the training room with Nox. Nox is professional and detached, and when Nox steps away for a moment, the girls notice Amy’s gaze follow him. They warn her not to get attached because he “only cares about the cause” (205).
Melindra defeats Annabel and then fights Amy, taunting her about Nox and the expectation she’ll save Oz. Enraged, Amy shoots a massive ball of fire at Melindra, who sidesteps it and continues her taunts. The next day, Amy meets Gert and Nox to train in magic. She can conjure a spell without getting angry, which jumpstarts improvement over the next several weeks. Amy gets better at casting spells and manages to hold her own in fights against Melindra. One day, Mombi watches sparring practice between Amy and Melindra, commenting that Amy is only reacting, not taking charge of the fight.
Upset, Amy teleports from the training room to gather herself. When she reappears, she catches Melindra by surprise and knocks her to the floor, saying, “Never underestimate a girl from Kansas” (215). Mombi is impressed and tells Amy she’ll accompany her to stop the Lion from destroying a village in the morning.
Chapters 19-21 Analysis
These chapters contain the training montage, a sequence common in dystopian novels where the protagonist learns the skills needed to overthrow the oppressive government. The conversation between Amy and Nox in Chapter 19 is more buildup for their later kiss and possible romance. Nox’s past makes Amy realize that she isn’t the only one who’s been abandoned by the ones who were supposed to protect her. The way Amy’s mom slowly stopped caring about Amy is similar to how Glinda broke her role as protector of Oz, which led to Nox losing his family and being rescued by the witches. Both Nox and Amy were left angry, and while Nox has channeled that anger into training to defeat Dorothy, Amy has let her anger make her bitter. These chapters are the first time Amy sees another way to live, but she is still too angry to understand how that way may be better.
The dance in Chapter 19 is a type of tough-love training that shows how much the witches are committed to their cause. With time running out, the witches resort to desperate measures to jumpstart Amy’s magical abilities. Having Nox confront Amy with hurtful things from her past may be unnecessary, but to the witches, it is justified because it gets the result they want. Amy’s reaction to the manipulation is natural, and it also represents the part of a dystopian novel where the protagonist starts to question what they’re part of. Amy doesn’t really know any of the witches. They’ve treated her mostly well thus far, and this manipulation was so unexpected that it makes her question them and their motives. She feels that stopping Dorothy is the right thing to do, but she’s wondering now if the witches are the right people to align herself with to accomplish that goal.
Gert’s apology in Chapter 20 is more proof that the witches are willing to do whatever is necessary for their cause. She didn’t want to hurt Amy but felt doing so was necessary, which shows that, despite her actions, she really does care about Amy. To Gert and the others, manipulating emotions is a way to bring out strength, as negative emotions and memories can fuel the ability to connect with magic—as Amy does at the dance. Amy seeing her mother in the scrying pool makes Amy realize how truly angry she is. The emotional wounds her mother caused are still raw, and those wounds make the manipulation from Chapter 19 hurt even more because she thought the witches were better than her mother. The pain Amy’s mom and the witches inflict on her symbolizes how the people closest to us hurt us most. Amy cares what her mother and the witches think, and that emotional investment makes her want to believe they care about her. While they may care as much as Amy does, that doesn’t mean they are perfect or that they always express themselves in the most appropriate way. The witches and her mom hurt Amy because Amy allows herself to be hurt by caring. If Amy didn’t care what the witches or her mother thought, their actions toward her wouldn’t bother her.
The conversation between Glamora and Gert that Amy overhears at the end of Chapter 21 is more foreshadowing and building for the sequels. Glamora knows or suspects the forces that brought Amy to Oz, and she fears them. Glamora believes in the cause, which is shown by her dedication to keeping Amy among their ranks. Similar to the dance, Glamora’s methods are manipulative, but they don’t bother Amy as much, likely because Amy has feelings for Nox and so doesn’t care if Glamora pushes them together, even if Nox doesn’t seem to have feelings for her in return.
Chapter 21 is a turning point for Amy. Leading up to Mombi’s observation that Amy is only reacting, Amy allows Melindra to bully her the same way Madison did in Kansas. Amy doesn’t feel like she can compete with Melindra, much like how she felt inferior to Madison, even if she wouldn’t admit it. Mombi’s comment forces Amy to think about who she is, who she wants to be, and her choices. Amy recognizes that she’s the only one who has control over actions, and defeating Melindra is the first time Amy takes control of her situation.
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