The Phantom Tollbooth
Setting, Time Period, and Location of The Phantom Tollbooth
Before Milo experiences the Lands Beyond, he is in the real world, in a nondescript place, and a nondescript time. I don't think it's too much of a leap to suggest Milo lives someplace between the time Juster wrote The Phantom Tollbooth, and the time around Juster's own childhood; that is, the time could be anywhere between the mid-1930s and the late-1950s. The real world for Milo is small and empty. Milo's tollbooth comes with a note, "For Milo, who has plenty of time" (Juster, 1996, p. 12). Milo dusts off his toy car, gets in, and brings with him the map and rule book that came with the tollbooth, and holds hope that his afternoon will not be too dull.
His first stop is Expectations, where "the sun sparkled, the sky was clear, and all the colors he saw seemed to be richer and brighter than he could ever remember. The flowers shone as if they'd been cleaned and polished, and the tall trees that lined the road shimmered in silvery green" (pp. 16-17).
He then encounters The Doldrums, where "the sky became quite gray, and along with it, the whole countryside seemed to lose its color and assume the same monotonous tone. Everything was quiet and even the air hung heavily. The birds sang only gray songs and the road wound back and forth in an endless series of climbing curves" (p. 22). This is the kind of place that nothing ever gets done and it is against the law to think.
Dictionopolis is "advantageously located in the Foothills of Confusion and caressed by gentle breezes from the Sea of Knowledge" (p. 36). After passing through the main city gate, Milo and Tock find themselves in "an immense square crowded with long lines of stalls heaped with merchandise and decorated in gay-colored bunting" (p. 38). They were at the World Market, a place with "so many words and so many people! They were from every place imaginable and some places even beyond that, and they were all busy sorting, choosing, and stuffing things into cases" (p. 47).
Confusion at the marketplace lands Milo in prison. "The air was dank and musty - like the smell of wet blankets - and the massive stone walls were slimy to the touch" (p. 63). He meets the Which who tells him the story of Rhyme and Reason, and is told that he can leave prison by pressing a button on the wall. He then attends the royal banquet which leads him on the adventure to rescue Rhyme and Reason and bring peace to the two opposing cities, Dictionopolis and Digitopolis.
Feiffer, J. (1961), p. 210
Feiffer, J. (1961)
The Forest of Sight is a dense forest of tall, leafy, thick trees. Within the forest exists a city called Reality, and off in the distance, a mirage-metropolis called Illusions. Reality exists, but you can't see it. It used to be visible, but once the inhabitants realized they could get places faster by walking fast and looking at nothing but their shoes, the city began to disappear (p. 118). They then encounter a symphony, not of sound, but of color. When the band ceases to play, color vanishes. "The world looked like an enormous coloring book that had never been used. Everything appeared in simple black outlines, and it looked as if someone with a set of paints the size of a house and a brush as wide could stay happily occupied for years" (p. 125).
Between the Forest of Sight and the Valley of Sound exists the wagon of the Doctor of Dissonance. "The dusty wagon was lined with shelves full of curious boxes and jars of a kind found in old apothecary shops. It looked as though it hadn't been swept out in years. Bits and pieces of equipment lay strewn all over the floor and the rear was a heavy wooden table covered with books, bottles, and bric-a-brac" (p. 135).
Upon arriving in the Valley of Sound, Milo notices something is different, "nothing sounded the same" (p. 144). "The wind no longer rustled in the leaves, the car no longer squeaked, and the insects no longer buzzed in the fields. Not the slightest thing could be heard, and it felt as if, in some mysterious way, a switch had been thrown and all the sound in the world had been turned off at the same instant" (p. 145). Like the city of Reality losing its appearance, the Valley of Sound lost their sounds because everyone was too busy to pay attention to them. Sounds were no longer appreciated, so the Soundkeeper, who collects and catalogs sounds, abolished sound from the land.
The Soundkeeper's fortress contains hallways, a parlor, and a vault. "They entered a tiny cagelike elevator and traveled down for fully three quarters of a minute, stopping finally in an immense value, whose long lines of file drawers and storage bins stretched in all directions from where here began to where there ended, and from floor to ceiling" (p. 153).
Conclusions, from a distance appears to be a "beautiful island covered with palm trees and flowers" (p. 165). One arrives at conclusions by jumping to just that, conclusions. When landing, the island is different, "Instead of palms and flowers, there were only rocks and twisted stumps of long-dead trees" (p. 166). The only way to get off the island is to swim through the Sea of Knowledge, which is a dry sea.
Inside the mountain mine of Digitopolis "Milo squinted into the darkness and saw for the first time that they had entered a vast cavern lit only by a soft, eerie glow from the great stalactites which hung ominously from the ceiling. Passages and corridors honeycombed the walls and wound and wound their way from floor to ceiling, up and down the sides of the cave. And, everywhere he looked, Milo saw little men no bigger than himself busy digging and chopping, shoveling and scraping, pulling and tugging carts full of stone from one place to another" (pp. 178-79).
Upon approaching the Mountains of Ignorance, "Almost immediately the light began to fade as the difficult path wandered aimlessly upward" (p. 203). "The higher the went, the darker it became, though it wasn't the darkness of night, but rather more like a mixture of lurking shadows and evil intentions which oozed from the slimy moss-covered cliffs and blotted out the light. A cruel wind shrieked through the rocks and the air was thick and heavy, as if it had been used several times before" (p. 203).
The Castle in the Air is reached by stairway, "Like a giant corkscrew, the stairway twisted through the darkness, steep and narrow and with rail to guide them. The wind howled cruelly in an effort to tear them loose, and the fog dragged clammy fingers down their backs; but up the giddy flight they went, each one helping the others, until at last the clouds parted, the darkness fell away, and a glow of golden sunrays warmed their arrival. The castle gate swung open smoothly. They entered the great hall on a rug as soft as a snowdrift and they stood shyly waiting" (p. 231).
After returning Rhyme and Reason to the Lands Beyond, Milo drove back to the real world. The adventure forced Milo to see his environment differently. "He noticed somehow that the sky was a lovely shade of blue and that one cloud had the shape of a sailing ship. The tips of tree held pale, young buds and the leaves were a rich deep green. Outside the window, there was so much to see, and hear, and touch - walks to take, hills to climb, caterpillars to watch as they strolled through the garden. There were voices to hear and conversations to listen to in wonder, and the special smell of each day" (p. 255).