Mahy's use of the metaphor of the journey as a process of self-discovery forms one of the central images of Dangerous Spaces. It is a dream journey that Anthea undertakes eagerly. She even goes to bed early to escape the prison of her everyday space and to experience the vistas and purity of her dream world Viridian. The journey takes on the quality of a medieval quest with Henry (whose Viridian name is Griff after the mythological griffin), Lionel (as Leo the knight figure in Viridian), and the land in the shape of a sleeping dragon. The Viridian spaces, however, become increasingly more crowded and more threatening, culminating in a war and a vast garbage dump (wasteland) of human debris. As Anthea begins to establish firmer connections with her new family, the lure of Viridian becomes less tantalizing. Significantly, the weeping statue that Anthea encounters at...