Matthew Boyce
History 1302
Land of OZ?
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”.
Taylor not only points out the political symbolism in this might be coincidence but he also shares more reasons with the characters in this story of imaginary. Dorothy lives in Kansas, which at this time was the home of the south most radical Populist. Her character was even pointed out as a “girl next door” or an “individualized ideal for the American people”. In the 1980 a populist cyclone moved and swept through Kansas and so much or “coincidence” a cyclone or tornado came across Kansas and swept Dorothy up, just as writing in his story to “pleasure the children”. The more comparing and showing examples of, the more the coincidence turned to reality. Even Dorothy’s last name and her ...
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... would only find and make a mole hole out of a mountain over this “hidden message”. During that time many American were just trying to get by with what little they had and to tell them about hidden message or even find your state on the US map would be something they either don’t care about or couldn’t show you. The best part about Taylor’s review was that Baum never admitted to do whatever Taylor calmed he did with hidden message.
Finally, I’m glad that I did this paper because I would have never known about the comparison that Taylor has made. Taylor did make some great points and shown a lot of great examples about the two but I think his weakness overcame his passion to prove Baum wrong. With the American people really not caring about hidden messages or have time to find or even listen to his idea because work equals food and food equals another day to live.
The first person the story talks about in the story is Dorothy. She’s a girl that comes form Kansas and was carried by a tornado. In the story when the reader first meet Dorothy he finds out that she is very curios, and straight forward. Dorothy in the story represents the average farmers in Kansas. On the other hand the tornado represents the change that has come up on farmers “ The Industrial Age.” Therefore the story creates a comparison between Dorothy and her new challenge getting back home and the farmer’s industrialization problem and fall of crop prices.
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
The article briefly goes over The Wizard of Oz, both the film and the book, and discusses how they fit into Campbell’s hero’s journey. Emerson summarizes Campbell’s idea of the hero’s journey for the reader, then splits Dorothy’s journey into three phases. The first phase is her travels on the yellow brick road where in the film she meets the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, and in the book Dorothy and her companions overcome natural obstacles. The second phase begins when they meet the Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City, who sets them on a trial before they can receive their respective gifts. The pinnacle of this trial is the face off with the Wicked Witch of the West, where she is defeated when Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her
Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt portrayed a man bent on following his political party; his actions seemingly followed that religiously, and today's version of the Republican Party is proof that we are not too far off from Lewis' version, despite the expanse of time. George Babbitt, the main character in Lewis' novel, viewed the world in the eyes of a businessman. He saw immigrants as a waste to society, business and the means to survive, and the ability to own the latest and greatest inventions as top priorities in his life. One must, in the 1920s and well as in today's world, set themselves in a political affiliation, generally one that describes the person and how he is. To Babbitt, the Republican Party held the most appeal, arguing that even the contents of his pockets "were of eternal importance, like baseball and the Republican Party" (Lewis 9).
To conclude, The Wizard of Oz is a lively story. L. Frank Baum was a success in bringing this story to life through the use of color. The many descriptions of the gray Kansas, yellow brick road, and Emerald City aid the readers to imagine the tale through a very unique way. Color overall is a huge contribute to the way readers feel and think. Color plays the role of imagination and creativity in this piece of
Frank Baums, The Wizard of Oz is arguably one of the most popular films made. Even though it was released in 1939, nearly three-quarters of a century ago, the film continues to entertain audiences and speak to them in a personal way. The question that comes to the mind when analyzing this film is: What is it about this film that gives it such timelessness? When reflecting on the film’s timeless qualities, it seems clear the plot is one of the things that enable it to maintain its relevance. Primarily, the plot of The Wizard of Oz is timeless because it is such an excellent example of the heroic journey, both in literally and cinematically. This journey of self-awareness is a metaphor for growth, which is something we all search to discover at some time in our lives.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is more than just a mediated artifact it is breakthrough, said to be one of the most famous films ever made. The film was not a box office success, it only received 3,017,000 on a 2,777,000 dollars budget but it still receive a large amount of positive reviews and remakes (). This is important in terms of the audience it reaches because it was not just a children’s movie, or an adult movie, or a movie for teens, it was a movie for the entire family that targeted no specific audience. The Wizard of Oz has won critical acclaim by being nominated for multiple academy awards such as best picture, best original song and is often ranked one of the top ten movies of all time (). The creator Frank L. Baum is very much significant because this was not his first ball game. He was originally an author of children’s books but wrote many novels, sequels and made many attempts to bring his work to stage and screen (). He had a vision like no other and saw things in a different pe...
Scene: This scene in the film comes just after the house has been picked up in the twister. Dorothy's house has been lifted up into the sky and suddenly dropped back down to earth in the middle of the Land of Oz. In the scene itself, Dorothy leaves her home to see that she is "Not in Kansas anymore," and finds the new and amazing world of the munchkin city in front of her. She also meets Gwendela the good witch as her journey in Oz begins.
...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.
Frank Baum had a specific purpose, some were used to set up the tone and setting for different parts of the novel such as the colors used to describe Kansas and Oz. Colors were also used to represent the different people in Oz, not everyone in Oz were alike and were different from the way they acted, lived or the characteristic which defined them. This use of color also helped to set up an underlying theme of corruption and greed represented by the journey and the group of travelers headed up by Dorothy, who when she reaches Oz is driven by self interest as opposed to later when she wants to make sure that everyone benefits from the death of the wicked witch. Finally colors where used as representation of ideas from representing joy, death, and danger, whenever a color was used to describe something it represented that character or setting tying together the underlying themes of greed, corruption and social
“Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.” In case you haven’t seen the film already, the plot to The Wizard of Oz (Oz) is profoundly complex and requires critical inquiry to unravel its intricacies. Dorothy, a forlorn Kansas farmgirl, daydreams of a fanciful fantasia where her dog, Toto, doesn’t have to suffer the nuisance of a nasty spinster witch of a neighbor. So, she plans to run away – far, far away. I know, a little weighty, but stick with me.
Nicholas Carr has many strong points in his article. He successfully proves that what he has to say is worthy of his readers time, and that maybe we should all take caution to how much time we spend on the
In conclusion, the protagonist of The Wizard of Oz Dorothy Gale, is initially unsatisfied with her life on her Aunt and Uncle’s farm and dreams of a foreign land over the rainbow, where there are no worries or disasters. Although as the story progresses, Victor Fleming incorporates a wide range of
The Wizard of Oz is a fiction story written by L. Frank Baum. The story has two main settings. The first setting is, Dorothy’s home, the Kansas prairies. The prairies are described as dry and gray. The second setting is the land of Oz. Oz is opposed from Kansas, it is colorful, bright, and full of joy. The Wizard of Oz has a grate theme or message behind the story. The message is that we all have good qualities in us, but it is up to us to use them.
In the words of Michael O’Shaughnessy, ‘narratives, or stories, are a basic way of making sense of our experience’ (1999: 266). As a society and a culture, we use stories to comprehend and share our experiences, typically by constructing them with a beginning, middle and an end. In fact, the order that a narrative is structured will directly impact the way it is understood, particularly across cultures. This idea originated through Claude Lévi-Strauss’s concept of structuralism in anthropology which ‘is concerned with uncovering the common structural principles underlying specific and historically variable cultures and myth’ in pre-industrial societies (Strinati 2003: 85). In terms of media studies, structuralism’s inherent objective is to dig beneath the surface of a media text to identify how the structure of a narrative contributes to it’s meaning. Structuralism encompasses a large range of analytical tools, however, this essay will examine Joseph Campbell’s monomyth and Claude Lévi-Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions. Through analysis of Victor Fleming’s film, The Wizard of Oz (1939), it will be shown that although the monomyth and binary oppositions are useful tools with which to unveil how meaning is generated in this text, structuralism can undermine the audience’s ability to engage with their own interpretations of the film.