The Ten Thousand Doors of January

Although he’s the novel’s villain, Cornelius Locke takes January under his wing and treats her as a daughter, giving her all the comforts and privileges money can buy. By contrasting his cruel and kind qualities, as well as highlighting January’s tendency to think the best of him, Harrow keeps the reader guessing as to whether Locke is good or evil. Only at the end of the story does Harrow reveal that Locke used mind control to subdue January and change her into the daughter he wanted.

Wealthy, powerful, and a natural leader, Locke is willing to do anything to maintain his power and keep the scales tilted towards his own interests. He closes Doors in the name of peace and prosperity, even when it means destroying January’s family. His obsession with collecting objects shows that he only cares about other worlds to the extent that he can exploit them for his own purposes. Locke acts as a foil to Julian, who assigns innate value to other worlds and the people who inhabit them. While Locke sees change as a threat to his power, Julian sees change as a necessity for the good of the world.  

With arms full of tattoos, red-black skin, and black eyes, Julian Scaller attracts stares wherever he goes. Traveling around the world to collect objects for Locke, Julian’s life seems adventurous and exciting at first glance. However, by the end of the novel, it’s clear that his life has been one filled with guilt and regret. Julian feels torn between his love for the two people he loves most: January and Ade. When he’s gone searching for Ade, he feels guilty for leaving January; when he’s home with January, he feels guilty that he’s not out looking for a Door to Ade. Furthermore, Julian also feels ashamed for stealing objects from other worlds for Locke. He knows someone is following him and closing Doors behind him, but feels powerless against them.

In contrast, the younger Julian, known as Yule Ian, prizes words and language. His position as a scholar allows him to chase stories, and leads to his discovery of a Door, an experience that changes his life forever. Although the young Yule and the seasoned Julian think differently, Julian’s book The Ten Thousand Doors shows that he still believes in the power of words, and recognizes the importance of Doors for bringing necessary change to the world. The book also shows January that her father loves her, and always has. By the end of the novel, Julian still carries guilt for leaving January, but with January’s forgiveness, the father and daughter both begin to heal.

Jane Irimu comes to Locke House at Julian’s request to be January’s nursemaid. She has dark skin, callused hands, an unusual accent, and a reserved but confident nature that makes her a mystery to January when the women first meet. With time, the two become friends, and Jane protects January on several occasions. Jane used to be a huntress alongside a community of leopard women in a forest world, but after meeting Julian, her Door closed. She stays with January in hopes that one day, her Door will reopen so she can reenter the only place where she truly felt she belonged.

When Jane was a child, her father died and her mother left her, so like January she feels bitter at the loss and abandonment of her parents. Jane felt she did not belong in the world she was born into, but instead found her sense of belonging in the leopard women’s forest world. When she returns to earth with Julian, she sees how disparity between the rich and poor and racial discrimination have corrupted it, and wants nothing to do with it. Jane’s character acts in part as a foil for January’s. When Jane’s mother left, she made her own way in the world, found the forest Door, and proved herself to the leopard-women. In contrast, without her father, January lived in comfort and wealth, and sacrificed her true self to please Locke. However, as the novel progresses, January gradually learns to be true to herself and make her own way in the world, a change that suggests similarities to Jane. 

Adelaide, nicknamed Ade by her aunts since the shorter name lends itself to “shouted warnings and admonishments” (57), has wheat-colored hair, freckles, and “soft, dreamers blue” eyes (352). In contrast with January, whom Locke raises with all the comforts wealth can bring, Ade grows up in poverty, raised by a group of women. She is a restless wanderer who wants adventure and has the imagination and courage to go find it. After discovering the Door in the hayfield, Ade’s life changes forever. She now has a purpose: to find Doors and eventually get back to the seaside world of the ghost boy. Ade embodies the adventurous spirit January admires in her books’ heroines. Although January’s brave and adventurous side does not fully manifest itself until later in the novel, she and Ade’s free-spirited natures and compulsion towards exploration clearly link them. Despite her absence throughout January’s life, Ade’s spirit resides in her daughter, and January follows in her mother’s footsteps, taking to the sea to hunt Doors in her mother’s boat, The Key.