72 pages • 2 hours read
Alix E. HarrowThe Ten Thousand Doors of January
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Leather-Bound Door”
In 1903, January is nine years old and better behaved, but still loves reading and stories. Her only friend is Samuel Zappia, the neighbor boy who drives the grocery cart. He often brings her stories to read, and she sneaks them back with the most exciting lines circled. Because January feels lonely, she jumps at the chance to join Locke on another trip, this time to London. Locke has a meeting with his Society, and January catches a glimpse of some of the members. One of them in particular, a red-haired man, strikes her as strange and threatening. All of the members have “a kind of collective not-quite-rightness, as if they weren’t men at all but other kinds of creatures stuffed into black-buttoned suits” (26). January behaves obediently on their trip out of hunger for Locke’s approval, and glows when he gifts her a new book as a reward for good behavior.
Fast forward to 1906. January is 12, and while her father arrives home between travels, she longs for a traditional family with a mother and a present father. January asks to go with Julian on his next trip, but he says his trips are too dangerous for a young girl. However, he promises to take her with him someday. When she’s 13, Samuel brings her a present: a puppy. Locke and Wilda forbid her from keeping the dog, and in her loneliness, January writes another story: “Once upon a time there was a good girl who met a bad dog, and they became the very best of friends” (35). The next morning, Samuel reappears with the dog, and this time Locke allows her to keep it. January names the dog Sinbad, calling him Bad for short, and the two are inseparable.
By the time January turns 15, Wilda leaves due to her dislike for Bad. However, January is not without a nursemaid for long. A woman named Jane Irimu arrives at Locke House to fill the position at the request of January’s father. Jane has dark skin and a quiet confidence, but is not particularly friendly towards January at first. At Locke’s annual Society Party, Mr. Havemeyer, a pale-skinned and sneering member of Locke’s Society, insults both Jane and January because of their colored skin, and Bad attacks him. After this incident, the women become “something like friends” (45).
The day before her 17th birthday, January hears a bird fluttering in the Pharaoh Room of Locke House. The sound comes from a blue treasure chest, a place where January has found gifts from Locke in the past, such as her leather diary. When she opens the chest, an exotic bird flies out and reveals a leather bound book at the bottom of the chest: The Ten Thousand Doors. January immediately notices the book’s unique smell: “Cinnamon and coal smoke, catacombs and loam” (23). Before she has a chance to open the book, Locke summons January to his office, where he tells her Julian’s expedition reports have stopped coming, and no one on the expedition has heard from him. He is missing, and likely dead. January falls apart, and Locke tells her she must accept her father’s death. In her sorrow, she feels comfort that she still has Locke, and that he likely gave her the book that day because he knew she would need it as an escape from her grief.
“The Ten Thousand Doors: Being a Comparative Study of Passages, Portals, and Entryways in World Mythology” Summary
This brief subsection comes from the new book January is reading. In it, Research shows that Doorways between worlds exist and allow people to travel from one world to another. These Doors only exist in particular places where two universes brush in “indefinable resonance” (52). Doorways produce “leakage,” which often leads to stories about people, objects, or ideas from other worlds (52). The leakage and stories bring change to the world in the forms of, “revolution, resistance, empowerment […] all the most vital components of human history” (52). Finally, once a Door closes, it seems it cannot reopen. However, instead of citing evidence to support these claims, the author instead will share a personal story in hopes that it will lead the reader to a Door.
“Chapter One: An Introduction to Miss Adelaide Lee Larson and Her Formative Explorations” Summary
This is Chapter 1 of January’s new book.
Adelaide Lee Larson, nicknamed Ade, was born in 1866 and raised by her aunts and grandmother on a farm. Ade has a restless spirit of adventure, and at age 15, encounters a “ghost boy” (67) in the hayfield behind her house. The boy has dark reddish skin, wears strange draping clothes, and claims to have come from his world of sea and stone into Ade’s hayfield through the dilapidated Door in the field. The two talk for hours, telling each other about their worlds, and part with a kiss, promising to meet again in three days.
At church on Sunday, Ade meets a man asking about a haunted property that he would like to purchase. Ade tells him about the ghost she had recently met on her aunts’ hayfield, and how he came through the cabin Door. The next day, the man comes and purchases the hayfield from her aunts, and by the time Ade reaches the field, someone has destroyed the cabin, along with its Door. Although she waits all day for the boy, he never returns, and Ade’s disappointment fuels her adventurous spirit. She resolves to believe in the possibility of Doors that lead to other worlds, and to find them in hopes that one will eventually lead back to the “city by the sea” (70) the boy spoke of.
Chapter 2 Analysis
This chapter spans several years, from 1903 to 1911, January’s ninth year to her 17th. Harrow provides information about inventions, accomplishments, natural disasters, and wars to show the reader significant historical events. These descriptions give worldwide historical context, and show how January’s narrative fits into it. Harrow uses the same technique to give context about Ade’s world. Ade was born in 1866 when order, railroads, and cotton mills were picking up speed and bringing progress, but “chaos and revolution” (55) were still present.
As January matures, she works to suppress her audacious and adventurous personality in order to be the good girl Locke wants her to be. She finds her worth in Locke’s approval, but at times feels like nothing but a piece in his collection. Her love for reading remains strong, and Harrow mentions several famous novels and characters by name such as The Jungle Book, Oliver Twist, Anne of Green Gables and Sara Crewe from The Little Princess. The day January hears her father is missing and likely dead, her newly found book, Ten Thousand Doors, becomes an escape—a Door in its own right. The motif of books and reading furthers the idea of the power of words and January’s deep connection to stories. Furthermore, uses of specific book titles along with historical context of real events create the feeling that January’s story truly happened.
The themes of race and gender develop further when January visits London and wonders if Africans are seen as “colored” there and if she is too. She muses that she would rather belong to the “colored” category than be alone somewhere in between black and white, showing her desire to belong. At the Society party, Havemeyer addresses Jane and January, speaking of them as objects rather than humans. Locke explains that power has a “geography, a currency, and—I’m sorry—a color” (44), drawing attention to imperialization and racial discrimination, and the fact that rich, white men have typically held power throughout history and used it to subjugate the rest of the world.
Harrow continues to draw attention to both smells and objects. January still has the coin that smells of “nutmeg and sandalwood” (31), and at age 12, puts it in her jewelry box instead of carrying it with her. This suggests that she has decided to put away her belief in the Door and give herself fully to being a good girl. When she finds The Ten Thousand Doors, she says it has accumulated “layers of smells” like “Cinnamon and coal smoke, catacomb and loam. Damp seaside evenings and sweat-slick noontimes beneath palm fronds” (23). The exotic smells suggest the book has a significant history, and has traveled from one place to another. Similarly, January’s father’s study smells of “sea salt and spices and strange stars” (32), matching his traveling lifestyle and somewhat mysterious character. Harrow’s mentions of objects and smells piques the reader’s interest and hints at the variety of worlds January will uncover.
Harrow often uses foreshadowing and hints about events to come. For example, Julian mentions the Society may be dangerous for January, January notices how Samuel grows more handsome as he gets older, and sees how Locke barely ages in comparison to her father. All of these details foreshadow future plot events. Harrow also often previews an outcome, then backtracks to explain events chronologically. Her uses of hints and foreshadowing keep the reader engaged and compel the reader to guess what may happen next.
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