The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 1 Summary

The Cyclone

  • Meet Dorothy, an all-American gal who lives with her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in Middle-of-Nowhere, Kansas. They live on a rickety farm that sounds like it would get terrible reviews on Airbnb.
  • Farm tour: it won't take long, because there's only one room. Well, two, if you count the cyclone cellar, which we have a feeling is about to be put to good use.
  • Prairie tour: literally everything is gray, including the land, the farm, Aunt Em, and Uncle Henry. Kansas sounds like a total bummer so far.
  • Oh, here's Toto! He is Dorothy's dog, and he's clearly the life of this party. His interests include playing and more playing.
  • Uncle Henry looks up at the sky and realizes a big storm's a-coming.
  • The cyclone comes on fast. Everyone's flying down into the cyclone cellar except for Toto, the idiot, who's under the bed.
  • Before Dorothy and Toto make it into the cellar, the house itself gets swept up into the cyclone. Looks like Dorothy's about to go on an unexpected vacation.
  • The house is in the center of the cyclone. Dorothy's pretty chill about it, all things considered, but Toto is freaking out—so much so that he almost flies out of the trapdoor. Dorothy saves him, though.
  • They've been in the cyclone so long now that Dorothy decides to go to bed. Night, Dorothy.