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Milo
In this chapter we meet the main character, a boy who thinks that everything is a waste of time. He sees the process of seeking knowledge as the greatest waste. He comes home from school and finds a box containing a tollbooth in his bedroom. He puts it together, and in his little toy car, he begins his adventure by heading to Dictionopolis, a place on the map that was included. -
Beyond Expectations
Milo goes through the tollbooth and enters the Kingdom of Wisdom. He meets the Whether Man in the land of Expectations. The man explains that, “Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you are going.” He tells Milo that, “some people never go beyond Expectations.” -
The Doldrums
Milo continues on his journey, but begins to daydream, takes a wrong turn, and ends up in the Doldrums, a place where nothing ever happens. He meets the Lethargarians and they tell him about the laws against thinking. He meets the Watchdog, who helps him escape the Doldrums by encouraging him to think. The more he thinks, the faster his little car moves, until he is, at last, back on the main highway. Tock, the Watchdog travels with him. -
Conversating with Alec
The boy introduces himself as Alec Bings and claims that he has the power to see through things. In fact, the only thing he cannot see, Alec explains, "is whatever happens to be right in front of his nose." Milo is dazzled by this and wants to be able to see things as well. Alec tells him to simply start thinking like an adult and once Milo does, sure enough he begins to rise off the ground. Then he suddenly drops back to the earth and declares that he'd prefer to keep seeing things as a child. -
Forest
Alec, Milo, Tock, and the Humbug continue their walk in the forest, coming upon a large clearing in which lies a magnificent metropolis. The city, Alec says, is called Illusions and is really just a mirage. Its twin city, Reality, turns out to be all around the travelers. Alec explains that Reality was once as beautiful as Illusions, but people in Reality decided that things would be much more efficient if they went everywhere as fast as possible and didn't bother to stop and appreciate things. -
Goodbye Alec
Alec escorts Milo, Tock, and the Humbug to the end of the Forest of Sight, where he bids them farewell and gives Milo a telescope as a gift so that he can "see things as they really are." -
The Valley of Sound
Upon entering the Valley of Sound, Milo can immediately tell why Dischord and Dynne seemed to be so afraid of it: there is no sound whatsoever. As Tock frets over his lack of ticking, a crowd of people bearing protest signs about the silence comes down the road. One of them produces a blackboard and writes out the story of the Valley's loss. -
The Valley of Sound
Next on the tour is the laboratory where sounds are invented—and also become visible. Milo claps his hands and sheets of paper begin shooting out. He tries to reason with the Soundkeeper about the silence in the valley, but she will not hear of it. At one point Milo tries to retort with "But!" and catches himself short, feeling the word form on his tongue and stay there. He quickly, and silently, makes for the door, smuggling his sound out with him. -
Helping the Valley of Sound
Milo hurries back to the angry mob where he is directed to deposit his stolen sound into a large cannon. When fired, the sound shatters the walls of the fortress and all the sounds in the vault come crashing out. After a few moments of noisy confusion, the dust settles, and Milo sees the Soundkeeper sitting on a pile of rubble. He goes over to apologize for helping destroy her fortress, and the Soundkeeper is very understanding. -
Freedom
When he finally makes it to the beach, Milo finds himself drenched in the waters of knowledge while the Humbug, who seems to be more interested in sounding knowledgeable than actually being knowledgeable, is bone dry. Juster seems to be telling us that one has to be open to knowledge in order to absorb it. -
Digitopolis
Shortly after their detour to Conclusions, Milo, Tock, and the Humbug come upon a fork in the road where the meet the Dodecahedron, a man with twelve faces, each of which displays a different emotion. When Milo introduces himself, the Dodecahedron wonders if everyone with one face is called "a Milo" and explains that in Digitopolis everything is named for what it is. -
Mathmegician admits defeat
Milo points out that if the Mathemagician and Azaz always disagree then they have agreed to disagree. The Mathemagician gracefully accepts his defeat and even gives Milo a miniature version of his magic pencil as a gift. -
The Race to Rhyme and Reason
And so the travelers are on their way once again. News of their journey seems to have spread across the demon network, though, and soon an entire throng of monsters is hot on their trail. Once they spot this horrible crowd, among its members all of the demons they had already met, Milo, Tock, and the Humbug press ahead at an even more urgent pace. -
Rescuing Rhyme and Reason
The travelers bound up the stairs, climbing so high that they push through the clouds. They reach the castle and meet the princesses of Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason, who have apparently been expecting them. -
Dictionopolis Importances
Once inside Dictionopolis, Milo and Tock find a market full of words being sold. They meet their soon-to-be good friend, The Humbug. After a mishap in the market, Office Shrift gives Milo a short sentence, then sends him off to prison.While there, Milo has to listen to Faintly Macabre's story about Rhym e and Reason and why they were locked up. Faintly Macabre also told Milo the importance of freeing Rhyme and Reason. -
Dictionopolis "King Azaz"
Finally, Officer Shrift lets Milo and his friends out of prison. Milo meets King Azaz, and has to eat at a feast with King Azaz and the many people of the kingdom. While Milo is at the feast, he is waiting impatiently for King Azaz to notice that Milo wants to speak to him. Once Azaz decides to listen to Milo, Milo tells Azaz that he wants to rescue Rhyme and Reason. Azaz reluctantly agrees, only after warning Milo that the Mathmegician had to agree first. -
Point of View
Motoring along in the electric car, Milo, Tock and the Humbug take in the scenery and stop to enjoy a panoramic view. When Milo comments that the view is beautiful, a strange voice counters that "it's all in the way you look at things." Milo whirls around and sees a boy about his age floating several feet above the ground. "For instance," the floating boy continues, "If you happened to like deserts, you might not think this was beautiful at all." -
Chroma the Great
Alec next leads the group to an enormous open-air orchestra concert of over a thousand musicians, all conducted by Chroma the Great. Chroma waves his arms, and the musicians seem to be playing their instruments, although Milo doesn't hear anything. Alec explains that this orchestra is responsible for providing all the colors in the world. -
The Valley of Sound
The Soundkeeper turns out to be a perfectly pleasant woman who invites the travelers inside where they find sounds still exist. She tours them through the vault where she keeps every sound that was every made, showing as an example the "exact tune that George Washington whistled when he crossed the Delaware on that icy night in 1777." -
Jumping to Conclusions
Milo learns a second lesson in this section during his detour to the island of Conclusions. Once they pass through the Valley of Sound, Milo and his companions each makes a statement that demonstrates an assumption. They make decisions without having enough information to do so and end up literally jumping to Conclusions. Since he got to Conclusions by deciding something before having enough information, it is fitting that Milo must swim through the Sea of Knowledge to get back to shore. -
Getting the Kings to Agree
ilo gives up on his trip to Infinity and returns to the Mathemagician's workshop, where he finally broaches the subject of Rhyme and Reason. When Milo tells him that Azaz has agreed to release the princesses, the Mathemagician refuses to allow it since he and Azaz always disagree. The Mathemagician tells Milo that if he can prove that he and Azaz have ever agreed, he will consent to the release of the princesses. -
The Rescue of Rhyme and Reason
A huge celebration ensues and all of the people Milo met during his journey through the Lands Beyond show up to congratulate him for finding Rhyme and Reason. King Azaz finally tells Milo the "secret" he warned him about back in Dictionopolis: the mission to save Rhyme and Reason was actually impossible. -
THE END
The tollbooth was just the first step, it seems, and now Milo is free to do all the exploring and adventuring he desires. Milo contemplates this, looking around at his room in a whole new way and seeing all sorts of wonderful and interesting things. "Well I would like to make another trip," Milo thinks, "but I really don't know when I'll have the time. There's just so much to do right here." -
Milo has Dangerous Temptations
Milo wakes up at 5:22 a.m. and decides that he should let Chroma sleep in and simply conduct the orchestra himself. The colors at first begin normally but Milo quickly loses control, causing all the colors to become wild and mismatched. Finally, after the sun has risen and set a full seven times, he gives up and drops his arms. It is 5:27 a.m., and it looks like night again. Chroma comes running up completely unaware that seven days have passed. -
Into the Mountains of Ignorance
After more climbing, Milo, Tock, and the Humbug finally reach a flat part on the mountain, where the find a well-dressed gentleman whose face has no features on it—no eyes, no nose, no mouth. Despite his frightening appearance, the man seems very friendly and politely asks for help on a few tasks. He instructs Milo to move a pile of sand a grain at a time, Tock to drain a well using an eye-dropper, and the Humbug to dig a hole through the mountain with a needle