In the film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum inspires his concrete belief of gender and power inequality through an allegory of both the setting of Oz and the characters themselves. The two major focus points shown in The Wizard of Oz is both power and gender roles being challenged within the two realms of Kansas and Oz which are present in society during the time the book and movie adaptation
The story of The Wizard of Oz is a beautiful piece of American history containing wonderful themes of the importance of adventure, friendship, and believing in one’s self. The story is about an 11-year-old girl who leaves her family to save her dog from Almira Gulch who demands to euthanize the dog. She comes in contact with a fraudulent
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She becomes everything that all of the men in the land of Oz couldn't do but desired so much. The male cast all obtain a false sense of everything they wish they had. The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion all felt a small second of intelligence, heart, and courage. At the end of the journey, the wizard, Oz put up a mask of fear. Despite the best efforts of his, it did not stop Dorothy from demanding to go home. Oz roars through the mic, “Go away and come back tomorrow” and Dorothy robustly replies, “Tomorrow? Oh, but I want to go home now” (Fleming, The Wizard of Oz). In the following quote, Dorothy develops an aptitude for confidence. At the beginning of the story she was nothing but merely a weak link in the beginning who relied on others but towards this point in this story, she became an independent, confident, women. While the other men were trembling from their legs, she stood strong and proud with no fear in her eyes against the great Oz with flames and pressure in the air. This shows the polar differences between both worlds. On one side of the world, things stayed away from change in society. The state of Kansas embarks on a traditional, more conservative atmosphere while the land of Oz is a liberating land with color, fluidity, and change. The only thing this young woman needed was a chance, a chance to have a voice, and the land of Oz offers that very thing. Like said before, it is highly important for women to have the chance to speak their mind and tell the world how women really feel. Women deserve the right to speak as much as any man deserves to. The significance for women to have a voice is monumental. With a voice, women were able to vote, have government recognition, and more freedom away from the traditional responsibilities. The impact the film had on American culture was incredible for the women's suffrage movements. Not saying it was specifically the film, but Dorothy
The narrative begins with Dorothy, who lives on a farm in a black and white setting presuming the absence of vitality and the insufficiency of a place that was in poverty at the time. However, when Dorothy is picked up by a twister and wakes up in the Land of Oz, she finds herself in a completely opposite environment full of life, beauty, and color filled with new found opportunities. On her quest to Emerald City, Dorothy is presented with a few characters who are The Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion, and The Scarecrow who all feel like they need something more to complete them and they all seek out the “all powerful” wizard to obtain the things they want. The items they yearn for were a brain, a heart, and courage. Three things that we learn to utilize with experiences we go through. The characters eventually realize that they have always had what they have been longing for after the many obstacles they came through on their journey. In the end, Dorothy says, “If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't
After the witch’s threats, the Scarecrow and Tin Man vow to stay with Dorothy. This is when Dorothy feels a familiarity with the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. They are not afraid of the wicket witch. They continue to walk, with the sound of the forest in the back ground, but Dorothy is afraid of meeting wild animals in the forest. Suddenly a lion appears, noisy and acting ferocious; he wants to fight them all. Initially, they are afraid, but Dorothy hits the lion and chastises him; the lion begins to cry and thinks his nose is bleeding. Dorothy calls him a big coward, he agrees and says he even scare himself. They suggest the Wizard of Oz could give the lion courage. He calls himself a dandelion. They head to the wizard to get a heart, a home, a brain, and coverage. The wicked witch of the west is behind the scene making a poison and puts it in the beautiful land scape of miles and mile of flowers. This is an area Dorothy must cross to get to the emerald city. Dorothy and company can now see The Emerald City in the distance. They began to walk across the colorful flowers towards the Emerald City and they can again see the yellow brick road. Dorothy suddenly becomes dizzy and sleepy, her and mentors and allies offers to pull her alone, but Dorothy and Toto and the lion falls asleep. The Tin Man and Scarecrow wants to carry Dorothy when realizing that
The first major connection in The Wizard of Oz was the Scarecrow. The scarecrow was used to symbolize the farmers and their struggles in America in the 18th century (Foner, Eric 636-640). The scarecrow made of straw was vulnerable with no brain. The scarecrow had little control over the circumstances he was facing just as the farmers did in the 18th century. The western farmers had issues with overproduction and when prices fell farmers suffered ended up losing their farms (Foner, Eric
In relation to occult symbolism, the above quotes have illustrated these features. Toto, the inner voice, led Dorothy along her trek . Glinda, the guide, gave Dorothy the resources to lead her in the direction to what she ultimately desires, a way to return to Kansas. Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion searched for a want or need, while supporting Dorothy. In whole, each of these characters displayed good behavior in assisting the young girl in her exploration to illumination and enlightenment. “Like Dorothy’s journey, ours lead to a better self-understanding and, hopefully, to wisdom. But what does “wisdom” mean? I suspect it consists precisely in having discovered the brightness, the enchantment inside everything we have encountered all our lives.”
L. Frank Baum shared an imaginary tale to the world when she wrote the “The Wonderful Land of Oz”. His passion and reasoning for writing this story was “written solely to pleasure the children of today”. Although not everyone agreed with this reason and thought otherwise. Quentin P. Taylor believed the “The Wonderful land of Oz” was a political symbolism and even thought that it was a populist allegory. Taylor accused the author of this imaginary tale that he was putting hidden messages or meaning in his story. Not only was Taylor accusing Mr. Baum of these actions but used different examples to prove his point. The biggest and most iconic example was the shoes Dorothy wore. In the movie “The Wizard of Oz” Dorothy wore shiny red ruby slippers but in Baum story Dorothy wears a pair of silver slippers. Taylor believe that not only was the slippers an issue but the yellow brick road with attaching the silver slippers was an Populist platform in which it demanded “ free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver”.
Picture a child sitting in front of a television watching the Wizard of Oz. To them, it is an assortment of magical beings, a land filled with wonderful places, with varieties of different colors. They do not picture it as something with far more meaning than just a plain fairytale. On the other hand, gender/feminist critics have been able to analyze the Wizard of Oz as well as Wicked, in order to find a more elaborate meaning behind the story itself. They have discussed what lies behind the story when it comes to the issue of sexism and masculinity towards the book itself as well as the characters. There are many concepts as well that help to further explain feminism and gender criticism. The four concepts that will be discussed later on are gender, feminist writings, patriarchal society, and gynocriticism. These concepts will then be reviewed as to how they play a part in the book Wicked.
...lf-confidence. The Scarecrow was the one who believed that he had no brain even with him coming up with brilliant and clever solutions to the many problems that they faced on their journey. The tin man believed that he didn’t have a heart, but cries when bad things are brought upon the creatures they come to encounter. The lion believed that he had no courage even though he was the one brave enough to continue the journey, he always stated how brave he was and pushed forward even when the others did not want to. A famous quote from Carl L. Bankston III of Salem Press stated that "These three characters embody the classical human virtues of intelligence, caring, and courage, but their self-doubts keep them from being reduced to mere symbols of these qualities” (). This is an important quote because it highlights the self-confidence that Baum explored in his story.
...s. The Scarecrow represents farmers, agricultural workers, ignorant of many city things but honest and able to understand things with a little education. The Tin Man, He represents the industrial worker whose heart has been torn out by the evils of factory work and industrialism. W.J. Bryan embodied the role of the cowardly lion. Bryan was a very loud and booming public speaker but was viewed as a coward because he did not support the Spanish-American war. OZ is the US. The emerald city is Washington D.C. filled with greenbacks and the wizard is the president. Dorothy and her “party” follow the yellow brick way, or gold standard, to find the wizard and fix her problem. When all along they way to fix her problem of how to get back home was to tap her ruby red shoes which were silver thus in the original book thus representing the Populists push for a silver standard.
In Peter and Wendy, written by J. M. Barrie, the characters exhibit specific qualities which are stereotypical of their genders. The characters fall into traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity: Peter is cocky, stubborn, charismatic and enigmatic to the women in his life, and Wendy Darling, a young girl whose father wants to remove her from the nursery she shares with her brothers. The two characters embody and perpetuate gender stereotypes, and mirror the stereotypes embodied by the adult characters in the story, Mr. and Mrs. Darling.
Dorothy, the main character, was highly empowered by Baum. Just the idea that a woman was the main role in a novel was shocking enough, but the way she acted throughout pulled it all together. When Dorothy ended up in Oz after the cyclone she knew she had to get back home to her Aunt and Uncle. Even though she was scared at first to make the journey to the Wizard, to find out how to get home, she took initiative to do it on her own, “”Come along, Toto” she said. “We will go to the Emerald City and ask the Great Oz how t...
They were held to lower standards and believed to be nothing but an object for men. The women were treated very poorly and were treated differently than the men. In many ways the women were shown to be little compared to the men. Since they didn 't have anything important in society the actions that were towards them were as if they 're peasants Woman had no possibility of ever been treated differently since they were ever going to have a better role in society. This movie portrayed how women weren’t held to higher standards but men
...the tribe, to give her input and change that idea of women not having a say. The film formed the idea that women can move up in power based on whom they were raised by and what traits they learn upon as children.
...he ideals that women of the time were held to. Instead of focusing on the power women felt after winning the vote she demonstrated how helpless some women still felt in their lives. She painted a clear picture of the struggles a woman would feel being trapped in the position of being happy all the time. How feelings like that can lead to emptiness, alcoholism, and suicide attempts. Dorothy Parker was a woman before her time and left us even today revealing in the ideas and statements she made.
Social factors have always encouraged the idea that men embody masculinity and women embody femininity and, thus, certain gender-norms are expected accordingly. In the past, such expectations were traditional and to go against them was frowned upon by the general public. Contemporarily speaking, there is more freedom to avail oneself of today than there was once upon a time. Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont’s fairytale adaptation of ‘Beauty and The Beast’ was published in 1740. During this time, men and women were compelled by the social conventions associated with their gender. When analyzing the literary work, the reader can grasp what gender roles are eminent in the characters identity and motives. By exploring the choice of language being
As a society, we have constructed gender roles which we associate to both male and female. These roles are depicted in various ways throughout our daily lives and even before we are born. Growing up we are read stories and watch movies that help mold the perceptions we have today. For example, I grew up watching Disney films, mainly the ones that involved the princesses. Why you may ask, well because that is what girls are supposed to according to our society. Although almost everything we watch has clear depictions of gender roles, I have chosen to analyze the gender roles in Peter Pan; more specifically the actions of Mr. and Mrs. Darling, Wendy, and Peter.