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.
Chapters 5-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Locked Door”
January realizes the coin she found as a little girl matches the one Yule planned to give Ade in the book. She now knows that The Ten Thousand Doors is a true story. January recognizes that she is a part of the story somehow, as well as others in her life who know about Doors, such as Locke, Jane, and maybe even her father. Rifling through the book, she finds a note from Samuel tucked inside: “Hold on January” (152). A moment later, nurses enter her room, take away her book, and bring her to the doctor, where she tries to steal a pen in order to write her way out of the asylum. However, the nurses quickly restrain her, take the pen, and give her drugs that leave her body weak and her mind foggy.
Days later, as the effects of the drugs finally wear off, Mr. Havemeyer comes to visit. He questions her about how she found out about Doors, what he calls “fractures” (158). He touches her skin with his pale fingertip, and all warmth leaves her body. January feels numb and weak after just one touch, as Havemeyer explains that he wants to keep the world full of “undefended, unmissed people” (160). Before he has time to do more damage, the nurse Mrs. Reynolds interrupts, and says he must leave since it’s time for January’s bath. Havemeyer reluctantly leaves and menacingly promises to return the following night. All through her bath, January can’t stop shaking from cold and fear. Mrs. Reynolds takes pity on her when she asks for her book, and secretly brings it to her that night.
“Chapter Four: On Love” Summary
Yule and Ade finally reunite after years of searching, and it’s evident that they are deeply in love. When Yule tells Ade his name, she pronounces it “Julian,” and the two spend their first weeks together in blissful oblivion to the world around them. They tell each other stories about where they’ve been, and recognize how the trajectory of their lives completely changed the day they met in the hayfield. Yule shares with Ade the main lesson he has learned about Doors: “Doors […] are change, and change is a dangerous necessity” (167).
Ade and Yule get tattoos pledging their lifelong love and commitment to one another, and then set sail on Ade’s boat, The Key. They travel all over the Written, Yule stitches blessings into their sails, and after a few months, Ade tells him she’s pregnant. Ready to set aside their wandering ways for the baby, they marry, and Yule’s mother tattoos their vows on their arms. They get a simple stone house on a hillside, and Yule gets a teaching job at the university. Their daughter is born, and they name her January after Janus, the god of in-betweens and doorways. The author reveals himself as January’s father, and begs her to believe in “doors, and worlds, and the Written. Believe most of all in our love for you” (175).
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Door of Blood and Silver”
In Battleboro, January feels a new sense of confidence and resolve after reading about her mother and father. She wonders what happened to them in their stone house on the hillside, and decides to escape from the asylum. She also takes comfort in a canvas coat mentioned in Yule and Ade story that indeed belongs to her father, remembering her father wearing the coat. January then rubs the edges of her silver coin on the stucco wall in her room and forms a sharp point, then uses it to carve words into her skin: “The door opens for her” (181). Just as before, the world shifts and her words come true. As January runs through the halls of Battleboro and reaches the front door, Havemeyer blocks her way. January runs inside a broom closet to escape, and with Havemeyer outside the door, carves another sentence into her skin: “She writes a Door of blood and silver” (185).
A “gaping wound” (185) appears in the closet just as Havemeyer’s hand reaches around the closet door. January steps through her created Door, crosses the Threshold, and finds herself alongside Jane in Samuel’s family’s cabin. Bad limps to greet her. Havemeyer follows her over the Threshold, and after just moments in the Zappia cabin, January knows he is right behind her. She adds the word “just” to her bloodied arm so that it now reads: “The Door opens just for her” (189), and as Havemeyer’s hand reaches through the door, it closes, leaving nothing but three of his pale white fingertips on the cabin floor.
January floats in and out of consciousness, in need of both physical and emotional rest. When she wakes, Jane remains by her side, and promises to stay with January and take care of her. Knowing she still has many unanswered questions, January listens as Jane picks up The Ten Thousand Doors and begins to read.
“Chapter Five: On Loss” Summary
After January is born, Ade soon gets restless and is ready to resume her life of travel and adventure. Yule buys a ship, and their little family of three sets sail on the Amarico once again. After a few months of travel, Ade decides to visit her Aunt Lizzie. Ade guides them back to the Door she came through, but as they sail across the Threshold, the in-between space is “bitten in half” (200) and Yule protects January while Ade slips away. Yule finds himself in Ade’s world with only January, and realizes that Ade did not make it through the Door.
Chapters 5-6 Analysis
Objects continue to function in the story as significant markers that advance the plot and symbolize deeper meanings. For example, the silver coin acts as confirmation for January that The Ten Thousand Doors is true, and that Yule, Ade, and the Doors are real. January also uses the coin as a pen to write on her skin and unlock her door at Battleboro, showing that the coin is both her motivation and means of escape. Another significant object is the canvas coat that Ade originally gave to Yule in the hayfield the day they met. He kept it all this time, and January remembers seeing her father with the coat that smells like her book, of “spice-and-ocean” (182). The coat confirms January’s identity as Yule and Ade’s daughter, and symbolizes the love between Ade and Yule; Yule still clings to the coat in hopes of finding his wife.
Harrow discusses the love between Yule and Ade, and shows how January’s knowledge of her parents’ love for her and each other gives her the bravery and self-assurance she needs to escape from Battleboro. When Yule and Ade finally find each other, their search for other worlds ends. Yule thinks of love as a language, and it leaves him “adrift,” unsure of what to do next (168). For Ade, love is a “homecoming” that leaves her content to stop wandering (168). When January reads her parents’ love story, she feels a new sense of confidence and identity. Her need to find her parents motivates her; she now has the sense of belonging she’s been looking for. The change in January after reading her parents’ love story shows the power of love to change one’s sense of self and bring freedom.
Harrow continues to highlight the power and significance of words. Tattoos are a major expression of identity in the Written, and a way to document important events. Ade and Yule get tattoos to declare their love, wedding vows, and family roles when January is born. January gives herself tattoos when she carves sentences into her skin with the coin. In both cases, tattoos permanently declare life-changing events. Yule and Ade also stitch words onto the sails of their boat as blessing for their travels and declaration of their love. Furthermore, Harrow highlights the significance of names with wordplay between “Yule Ian” and Ade’s pronunciation, “Julian” (164). When January reads that her name derives from the god of “places in between” (175), she wears her name proudly and has the confidence to write a Door of escape from the asylum. Tattoos and names function in the text as powerful words of identity that bring belonging and bravery.
Finally, Harrow comments on the nature of power and contrasts Havemeyer’s power with January’s. Havemeyer wants to use his power to keep the world the same, full of weak people he can prey upon. Oppositely, Yule’s words teach January the importance of bringing change to the world through Doors. Havemeyer asserts that, “the powerful come for the weak” (160), but January has power of her own. Though locked in her room at the asylum, just like she was as a little girl, confinement doesn’t break January’s spirit. Even though she’s used her power before, she now understands and believes it in a new way, and uses it to escape from Battleboro. Harrow’s contrast between Havemeyer’s and January’s power shows that the weak only remain so when they see themselves as helpless and alone. Once January feels secure in her parent’s love and her heritage as a Door opener, she has the confidence she needs to assert her own power and fight back.
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