The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz Summary Interpretations

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's story written by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by W.W. Denslow, and first published in 1900. The story chronicles the adventures of a girl named Dorothy in the land of Oz. It is well regarded in popular culture and has been widely translated as the first American fairy tale due to its setting. Its initial success led to Baum writing and having published thirteen more Oz books.

1 Summary

The Good Witch of the North comes with the Munchkins to greet Dorothy, and gives her the Silver Shoes the Wicked Witch of the East had been wearing when she was killed (her death is explained in The Tin Woodman of Oz as due to her being old and dried up before Oz became a fairyland). In order to return to Kansas, the Good Witch of the North recommends: "Let Dorothy go to the City of Emeralds" and ask the Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz born Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs is a fictional character in the Oz universe created by L. Frank Baum. To shorten his name he went by his initials (OZPINHEAD), but since they spell out the word "pi to help her. The Good Witch of the North also kisses Dorothy on the forehead, stating that no one will harm a person who has been kissed by her. On her way down the Yellow Brick RoadThe Yellow brick road is a stock phrase referent to a path which leads to a life of fantasy and carefreeness. The Yellow brick road is an element in the story about the The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The yellow brick road leads to Oz. As "Oz, Dorothy meets some remarkable characters: she liberates the ScarecrowThe Scarecrow is a character in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and later Oz books by L. Frank Baum. A living scarecrow, he encounters Dorothy Gale in a field in the Munchkin Country while she is on her way to the Emerald City. The Scarecrow joins Dorothy in t from the pole he's hanging on, restores the mobility of the Tin Woodman, and encourages the Cowardly LionThe Cowardly Lion is a character in the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. The Lion makes his first appearance in the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. He is the last of the companions Dorothy befriends on her way to the Emerald City. The Lion joins her so that to journey with her and Toto to the Emerald CityThe Emerald City is the fictional capital of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz''. According to early books in the series, the Wizard built the city and named it after himself, but later books indicat. The Scarecrow wants to get a brainFor other articles about other subjects named brain see brain (disambiguation). In the anatomy of animals, the brain or encephalon is the supervisory center of the nervous system. Although the brain is usually cited as the supervisory center of vertebrate, the Tin Woodman a heart, and the Cowardly Lion courage; and they're convinced by Dorothy that the Wizard can help them too.

When they arrive at the Emerald City, the companions must wear special spectacles to keep the brilliance of the Emerald City from blinding them; wearing them, everything appears in different shades of green. They are told that the Wizard will only see one of them a day, and that the guard himself has never seen him! And to Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion, the Wizard appears each time as someone or something different. To Dorothy, the Wizard is a giant head; the Scarecrow sees a beautiful woman; the Tin Woodman sees a ravenous beast; the Cowardly Lion sees a ball of fire. The Wizard agrees to help each of them, but his help is conditional; one of them must kill the Wicked Witch of the West, who rules over the Winkie Country.

Once Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion arrive in the Winkie Country, the Wicked Witch sends wolves, crows, bees, and then her Winkie soldiers to attack them; but each threat is dispatched by the travelers. Then, using the power of the Golden Cap, the Witch summons the Winged Monkeys to destroy the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman but to bring her Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion alive. The Winged Monkeys can't attack Dorothy anyway due to the Witch of the North's kiss, so they succeed in their mission - the final one the Wicked Witch can command due to the Cap's enchantment.

Dorothy is forced to work as a maid to the Wicked Witch while the Lion is pressed into service to pull her chariot. But the Lion refuses to do so, because Dorothy sneaks him food every night. Dorothy is also left unharmed because she wears the Silver Shoes that have undefined magic powers. When the Wicked Witch gains one of the shoes by trickery, Dorothy in anger grabs a bucket of water and throws it on the Wicked Witch, who begins to melt. The Winkies rejoice at being freed of her tyranny, and they help to reassemble the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. So enamored are the Winkies of the Tin Woodman that they ask him to become their ruler, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas.

The long walk from the Wicked Witch's former palace to the Emerald City is alleviated by Dorothy's use of the Golden Cap, which summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and her companions to the Emerald City. The King of the Monkeys relates how he and his mischievous people were forced to choose between submission or annihilation; through the Cap, they obeyed first Quelala, then the Wicked Witch, and now Dorothy herself.

When they meet the Wizard of Oz again, he tries to put off Dorothy and her friends and only under threat of seeing the Winged Monkeys again (who under the Wicked Witch's command attacked him in the past) convinces him to let them in to his throne room. Toto discovers a curtained side room away from the Wizard's throne, pulls the curtain back, and reveals a wizened old man who had journeyed here himself long ago from Omaha. He once rose high in a balloon and then landed in Oz; when the people saw the letters "OZ" on the balloon (in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, we find they're his initials), they presumed he was their ruler and began building the Emerald City. Finding himself in a country of witches, Oz (for the purposes of this article, that will be the false Wizard's name) soon saw the need to maintain anonymity - hence his appearances to Dorothy and the others, which are revealed as clever (for the dawn of the 20th century) special effects.

Oz tries to persuade the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion that what they lack are not brains or a heart or courage, but faith in themselves. But he still agrees to meet each of them and to give them (without their knowledge) a placebo which brings out the qualities they had all along. In order to help Dorothy and Toto get home, Oz realizes that he'll have to take them home with him in the same hot air balloon in which he arrived. Revealing himself to the people of the Emerald City one last time, Oz appoints the Scarecrow, by virtue of his brains, to rule in his stead. Just as they're rising into the air, however, Toto leaps from the basket after a cat and Dorothy goes after him, leaving the Wizard to rise and float away.

Dorothy turns to the Winged Monkeys to carry her and Toto home, but they cannot cross the desert surrounding Oz. The citizens of the Emerald City advise that Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, may be able to send Dorothy and Toto home. They, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion journey to Glinda's palace in the Quadling Country. Together they escape the Fighting Trees, dodge the Hammerheads, and tread carefully through the China Country. The Cowardly Lion kills a giant spider which is terrorizing the animals in a forest, and he agrees to return there to rule them after Dorothy returns to Kansas.

At Glinda's palace, the travellers are greeted warmly, and it's revealed by Glinda that Dorothy had the power to go home all along. The Silver Shoes she wears can take her anywhere she wishes to go. She tearfully embraces her friends - all of whom will be returned, through Glinda's use of the Golden Cap, to their respective sovereignties: the Scarecrow to the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman to the Winkie Country, and the Cowardly Lion to the forest. Then she'll give the Cap to the king of the Winged Monkeys, so they'll never be under its spell again. And Dorothy and Toto return to Kansas and a joyful family reunion.

2 Interpretations

Baum rejected the idea that his story was an allegory for anything; however, many have read political or spiritual allegories into it. Psychologist Shelden Kopp demonstrated in a 1970 article to Psychology Today that the story has parallels to the processes individuals undergo during psychological therapy; Madonna Kolbenschlag later took up this idea in her non-fiction book Lost in the Land of Oz. In his book The Zen of Oz: Ten Spiritual Lessons from Over the Rainbow, Joey Green explores the parallels between The Wizard of Oz and Buddhist Taoism (this is not as far-fetched as it may first seem, as Frank Baum was greatly influenced by his mother-in-law, who took an interest in eastern mysticism). Others have written about parallels between the book and the situation in Europe on the eve of World War II, despite the fact that the book was published nearly 40 years before the war.

For additional interpretations, see:

2.1 The book as a parallel on populism

But the most persistent theory, despite being frequently refuted by Baum scholars and relatives alike, is that Baum's story was written as an allegorical commentary on U.S. politics at the end of the 19th century, notably the Bimetallic system. The seed for this theory was planted in 1963, when a school teacher named Henry Littlefield decided to spice up his history classes by using the characters and events of The Wizard of Oz as metaphors to teach historical concepts. Together with his students, Littlefield drew parallels between historical events and events in the book, and eventually published these parallels in an article in the 1964 American Quarterly magazine. Littlefield never claimed that Baum had purposefully planted these themes in his book, but he did point out that the book was written at about the same time these events were taking place.

Over the years, the idea captured the attention of various writers and journalists, and took wing. Several writers expanded upon Littlefield's parallels, and soon the allegory was being printed not only in literary essays but in several economics and history textbooks. An idea that started as a game of "let's see how many similarities we can spot" took on a life of its own, and somewhere along the line mutated into the concept that Baum purposefully wrote a political allegory.

For a more detailed history of this debate, see the following external articles:

A history of the debate
David Parker's article "The Rise and Fall of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a 'Parable on Populism'"; also in JOURNAL OF THE GEORGIA ASSOCIATION OF HISTORIANS, vol. 15 (1994), pp. 49-63
Littlefield's 1992 essay on the subject
Collection of material relating to Oz as a political allegory

And the book: The Historian's Wizard of Oz - Reading L. Frank Baum's Classic as a Political and Monetary Allegory, edited by Ranjit S. Dighe, Praegur Publishers, Westport, Connecticut 2002.

2.1.1 An outline of the allegory

Many of the events and characters of the book can be seen to stand for political events and ideas. Even the title has been interpreted as alluding to a political reality: oz. is an abbreviation for ounce, a unit familiar to those who fought for a 16 to 1 ounce ratio of silver to gold in the name of bimetallism.

The Kansas of the book depicts the hardship of rural life in America at the turn of the 20th century, right after the Panic of 1893. Dorothy is swept away to a fantasy version of America that represents the country's potential. Dorothy's silver slippers (they were changed to ruby only in the film) and their relationship to the yellow brick road represents the potential of a bimetallic, gold-and-silver system to better the US.

Other allegorical aspects of the book include:

Dorothy, naive and simple yet sweet at heart, represents the American people
The Wicked Witch of the East represents Eastern money power, the big banks and businesses of the East; her oppression of the Munchkins stands for the oppression of the average American at the hands of these Eastern financial forces
The Emerald City represents a greenback version of Washington D.C.
The Scarecrow represents the American farmer - although thought to be unintelligent, he possesses a strong common sense
The Tin Man represents the American industrial labor - as with the erroneous image of the farmer, he is thought of as heartless but in reality has a strong sense of cooperation and love
The Cowardly Lion represents reformers, particularly William Jennings Bryan
The Wizard of Oz, like the Wicked Witch of the East, symbolizes the political and economic power that runs the country. Although he has immense power and prestige, in the end he is a charlatan and more pathetic than awe-inspiring. This depiction is a reflection of Baum's belief that the spirit of America lies in its working classes and their values. Specifically, many see the wizard as representing President William McKinley

2.1.2 In refutation of the allegory

Baum's family and researchers of Oz and Baum have rejected the idea that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was purposefully written as an allegory. When reviewed by those with a greater familiarity with Baum's known political views and his writing style, the idea of an intentional pro-silverite allegory seems highly unlikely.

Baum seldom mixed politics into his stories, and when he did, he did not tend to do so subtly. His digs against Standard Oil in The Sea Fairies, for example, are heavy handed to the point of crassness.

No contemporary reviews of the book alluded to politics. The first time the parallels were drawn was well over 50 years after the events the book supposedly represents.

Baum's political opinions do not fit neatly with the pro-silverites. Neither was he a classic republican, though there is more evidence to support his republican leanings. In 1890, he bought the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer , a staunchly Republican newspaper. One of his editorials shows his Republican sympathies:

We are all members of one great family, the family which saved the Union, the family which stands together as the emblem of prosperity among the nations--Republicanism!

As for being anti-McKinley, Michael Patrick Hearn, author of The Annotated Wizard of Oz and many important scholarly works on Oz and Baum, unearthed the following poem by Frank Baum, published in a Chicago newspaper in 1896, at the height of populism:

When McKinley gets the chair, boys,

There'll be a jollification

Throughout our happy nation

And contentment everywhere!

Great will be our satisfaction

When the "honest money" faction

Seats McKinley in the chair!

No more the ample crops of grain

That in our granaries have lain

Will seek a purchaser in vain

Or be at mercy of the "bull" or "bear";

Our merchants won't be trembling

At the silverites' dissembling

When McKinley gets the chair!

When McKinley gets the chair, boys,

The magic word "protection"

Will banish all dejection

And free the workingman from every care;

We will gain the world's respect

When it knows our coin's "correct"

And McKinley's in the chair!

It is hard to believe he would change his politics so drastically by the time he sat down to write The Wizard of Oz.

The strongest point in opposition to Littlefield's original essay is that he, himself, later amended it. Following Hearn's publishing of the poem above, Littlefield responded in the New York Times that the poem was proof that "there is no basis in fact to consider Baum a supporter of turn-of-the-century Populist ideology".

3 Translations

The Wizard of Oz has been translated into well over 40 different languages. In some cases, the story proved so popular in other countries that it was co-opted as a local classic. For instance, in some countries where the Hindu religion is practiced, abridged versions of the book were published in which the Tin Woodman was replaced with a snake for religious reasons.

The Wizard of Oz was very successfully introduced in the Soviet Union in 1939. Translator Alexander Volkov took liberties with his translation, editing as he saw fit, and adding a chapter in which Ellie (his name for Dorothy) is kidnapped by a man-eating Ogre and rescued by her friends. Volkov went on to write his own independent series of sequels to the book, including: Urfin Djus and His Wooden Soldiers, Seven Underground Kings, The Fire God of the Marranes, The Yellow Fog, and The Mystery of the Forgotten Castle. Russian illustrator Leonid Vladimirsky drew the Scarecrow short, round and tubby; his influence is evident in illustrations for translations across the Soviet bloc, where the Scarecrow is almost always portrayed as short, round and tubby. Leonid Vladimirsky has written at least two additional sequels to Alexander Volkov's alternative Oz, or "Magic Land" as it is called in Russian; additional sequels to this alternative Oz have been written by two more authors in Russian, and a third German author.

4 Stage and screen adaptations

Several stage and screen interpretations were made of the book. Most famous among them today is the 1939 film featuring Judy Garland as Dorothy, but the earliest musical version of the book was in fact produced in 1902, and was highly successful at the time. Early film versions of the book include a 1917 film produced by Baum himself, and a 1925 film featuring Oliver Hardy as the Tin Woodsman. The Wiz was a hit musical with an all-black cast produced in the 1970s on Broadway; it was later made into a 1978 movie directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. The most recent musical adaptation of an Oz-related book is the musical Wicked, based on the book Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire .

5 External links

The world of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Wonderful Wizard of Oz Wonderful Wizard of Oz

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