When Women Were Dragons

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Chapters 21-25

Chapters 26-30

Chapters 31-35

Chapters 36-40

Chapters 41-44

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

Chapters 36-40Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 36 Summary

The event, which occurs simultaneously all over the country, is referred to as the Little Wyrming, a mass transformation of prepubescent and adolescent women. Though the number of women who dragon is not as large as the Mass Dragoning of 1955, the Little Wyrming results in many minors having nowhere to go, now that they are dragons. Fear pervades society to the point of segregation, with parents begging others to keep dragons away from their children. Older dragons come to take care of the fledgling dragons who have been displaced, and Mrs. Gyzinska sets up living situations for small communities to form. The official response, again, is to ignore the dragons. And, again, the dragons do not go away.

Interstitial Document #15 Summary

Dr. Gantz formerly addresses, once again, the House Committee on Un-American Activities on the return of dragons. He informs the members that they are now unable to deny dragons—because some now have family members who dragoned and didn’t leave their families. He begs the committee to just accept the dragons as they are and tells them that he does not have all the answers.

Chapter 37 Summary

Alex starts college and receives her high school diploma in the mail. She decides to call Mrs. Gyzinska, who has been helping dragons find shelter and family despite anti-dragon protestors. She asks after Beatrice and Alex’s other roommates—in other words, the dragons living with her and helping her to look after Beatrice. As the adult Alex reflects on these events, she recalls that Mrs. Gyzinska later dies on Christmas Day. The young Alex dedicates her diploma to her mother, questioning whether people truly die if the memory of them lives on so strongly.

Chapter 38 Summary

Alex thinks back to prom night and the moment after Marla rescues her. Marla asks Alex if her father ever found out about the accounts her mother left for her. He didn’t, and in the box he gave her were documents with information for bank accounts that Bertha had set up. When Alex visits the banks in Madison, she realizes that her mother left for her a share in a farm and a building near the University campus. Alex and Beatrice—and Marla, Edith, Clara, and Jeanne, dragons all—move into the building. Beatrice, ever rebellious, struggles more and more with the idea of remaining a girl, and Alex although Alex is still uncomfortable around so many dragons, she feels appreciative of the assistance she is receiving.

Chapter 39 Summary

Alex leaves for school and, on the way, meets up with some friends. Among her friends is Sonja. The two girls are reunited and remain inseparable for a long time after that. Sonja spends more time with Alex’s family, too, and becomes quite close with Beatrice.

Chapter 40 Summary

Alex, who had promised Mrs. Gyzinska that she would connect with Dr. Gantz, finally does so after her first successful semester of college. When she finds his office, she sees an old, eccentric man buried under mounds of papers and historical artifacts from dragon cultures around the world. As they talk, Alex learns from Dr. Gantz and he from her—he wishes to visit her home and observe her family structure and the dragons with whom she lives. Alex asks Dr. Gantz a question she’s often pondered, and one her father also had: If Alex’s mother had been allowed, or chosen, to transform into a dragon, would she have lived? The pair discuss choice, biology, and the facts about dragoning. Dr. Gantz tells her that dragoning isn’t sex-specific and that it is a choice that people can make and sometimes choose not to. Alex doesn’t necessarily find the resolution she is seeking, but she does ask about Beatrice’s bouts with transformation and strong desire to become a dragon. Dr. Gantz tells Alex to let her transform—that it’s futile to prevent it. He if he can record her transformation for science. Alex isn’t sure about this, but she thanks Dr. Gantz for his time and leaves.

Chapters 36-40 Analysis

Society is forever changed after Little Wyrming, since the presence of dragoning can no longer be ignored. The practice of denying and silencing turns instead into vitriol and bigotry. This is another real-world consequence of Emotional Repression and Censorship of Taboo Topics; because society has so actively denied the very existence of dragons for so long, many people cannot come to terms with the constant presence of dragons in their lives, and thus their former denial is transformed instead into prejudice and discrimination. For some, the denial continues and becomes all the more harmful for those who are targeted, for the dragoned women’s very existence is no longer being passively ignored; instead, it is being actively protested. Thus, although the overt presence of dragons has improved life for those who yearn to transform, many challenges to becoming fully accepted still remain. Nowhere else in the novel is the parallel between Barnhill’s dragons and the real-world proponents of second-wave feminism more explicit, for just as Barnhill’s women make the bold choice to become their true selves despite society’s compulsion to recoil from them, so too did the members of the rising feminist movement suffer the social consequences of daring to take up more space in society and to demand the widespread acknowledgment of their true selves.

Alex and Dr. Gantz’s conversation about personal agency is the culmination of Alex’s quest to understand whether dragoning is intentional, and whether it is something that anyone can do. As Dr. Gantz explains his philosophy, the novel makes it clear that the right of choice is the central defining characteristic for any individual, and that any society built upon shame, secrecy, and proscribed gender roles can only see those who choose to exercise their personal agency as an existential threat. Thus, dragoning itself represents the freedom to choose—something that Beatrice should be allowed to have, as well. At this point, the discussion highlights the dilemma involved in Personal Agency and the Expression of Unconditional Love, for Bertha herself denied her own inner truth in order to stay with her children, and Alex’s love of Beatrice has so far compelled her to entreat the girl to similarly deny the change. Because of society’s continuing need to deny dragons full status within the community, dragoning has always been an all-or-nothing proposition, for the resulting effect of choosing oneself over everything else means leaving everything else for oneself. However, as the fabric of society is inevitably changed by the growing presence of dragons in everyday settings, this dynamic will change, and accepting oneself will not have to come at the cost of repudiating everything else.