The Ten Thousand Doors of January Themes

The Power of Words

In the most literal sense, January’s ability to reshape reality through writing stresses the power of literacy. However, a deeper meaning to January’s power is implicit throughout the novel; it surfaces when January responds to the difficulties, dangers, and obstructions she faces. Power is not inherent in the words themselves; rather, the power in January’s writing is activated through intention and will. In this sense, it is January’s power of expression, agency, and independence that changes the world around her.

Prejudice and Discrimination

January often comments about how she does not easily fit into the social categories that command a privileged power. She mentions that she is objectified, exoticized, or deemed an “Other” based on the color of her skin and limited by her gender. January describes the looks she receives and the vastly different life she is able to live once she is no longer in Mr. Locke’s care. Her experience is shared by other characters, such as Miss Jane Irimu, who recounts the limitations that society has imposed upon her, and even Samuel Zappia, whose future seems determined by his family’s business.

Traditional and the Modern

There is an ongoing tension in the novel between the old and the new. The “old” references folktales, local rumors, and mysterious stories that lack structure or reason. These breadcrumbs lead to other worlds, the sites of foreign power, and change. Doors, the portals that link worlds together at their borders, similarly appear as dilapidated, ruined, or forgotten. In the novel, they exist in unexpected places at particularly marginal locations, such as open fields, abandoned temples, and unused lighthouses. Even their composition is unremarkable—they are made of driftwood, worn stone, and rusty silver. Artifacts hold power, too. Objects that are steeped in the power of foreign worlds exhibit a particular and peculiar power. These objects are used throughout the novel. Mr. Locke only drinks from his jade cup, Mr. Ilvane uses the false face to hunt January, and Julian Scaller uses the paired boxes to deliver The Ten Thousand Doors to January.

In comparison, “new” becomes an imposed order that brings with it rigidity and strict hierarchies, which the New England Archaeological Society members seek to institute by destroying Doors. Mr. Locke and his colleagues attempt to establish their control over the world by making it impossible for new influences, new exchanges, and new powers to threaten the power they have amassed. Yet, by counteracting or denying the engagement with the past, they maintain that their objective is to usher in modernity. The characters outside of the exclusive Society question who prospers from this initiative and whether resistance to (ex)change is truly fruitful.