When Women Were Dragons

The return of dragons and Beatrice’s sudden almost-transformations create an impossible situation for Alex. Neither she nor the rest of society can continue to deny that dragoning exists; the deliberate return of so many dragons to their former lives and homes is a social movement much too broad and far-reaching to ignore. Thus, these chapters portray the full extent of Alex’s inner discomfort as she forces herself to embrace the idea that dragoning is a phenomenon she needs to understand, both for herself and for Beatrice. Through her research, her many long years of negative conditioning begin to yield, and she slowly discards many of the social and emotional restrictions that her family and society have placed upon her to discourage her from the pursuit of knowledge. In this, she might be said to undergo an internal, spiritual equivalent of dragoning in the sense that she comes to embrace the quest for truth rather than fleeing it and learns to acknowledge the powerful presence of a phenomenon that she has long been taught to deny. Whether she herself dragons or not, she has nonetheless learned to tap into her own emotions and intuition, earning for herself a new psychological and spiritual freedom that is further manifested in her renewed dreams and plans to attend college.

Alex is not the only one learning and growing; the sudden reappearance of dragons soon begins a revolution for society—starting with the smallest gestures. Women and dragons meeting in small circles behind schools, sharing books and cigarettes, is an image deliberately designed to reflect the communal and informal knowledge-sharing that characterized second-wave feminism. To further strengthen the idea that a powerfully subversive movement is gaining momentum, Barnhill crafts the group dragoning session that takes hold at the high school prom. The prom itself represents the very epitome of heteronormative societal tradition within the context of coming of age. By abandoning their dates and transforming together at this particular event, the young women-turned-dragons become a symbol of the growing awareness and wildness of women everywhere. As they dance together, it becomes clear that even society’s most time-honored institutions and inviolable spaces are being invaded. The presence of elder dragons guarding the transformation of their younger sisters further emphasizes that such acts of transformation will not only be public, but publicly protected, sanctioned by those who embrace and value the transition for what it truly is: the embrace of the authentic self and the primordial bid for spiritual freedom.