Structurally, the book ends exactly where it began: in Kansas. In the last chapter, after all her adventures in Oz, Dorothy has finally found her way home and into the open arms of dear old Aunt Em. What's interesting is how Dorothy gets there.
Though she spends the entire novel looking for someone to help her, in the end it wasn't necessary. All Dorothy had to do was tap into the power of her own silver shoes to travel back to the family farm. To think, she could have returned home from the moment she landed in Oz! Of course, that wouldn't have been much of a story.