Author Topic: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?  (Read 14187 times)

Offline David In Indy

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #10 on: May 25, 2009, 01:32:25 am »
I've long been interested in all the ways one can interpret TWoO, which is like America's fairy tale (as opposed to most fairy tales we're familiar with, which are European in origin). Here are a couple the many possibilities:

1) I once attended a historical conference where a professor presented a paper about TWoO as an economic parable full of symbols for economic trends and characters that were prominent at the time of its publication. In this scheme, Dorothy represented Everyman, the Scarecrow was the farmer, the Tinman was the factory worker, the yellow-brick road was the gold standard, the Emerald City was the greenback, and the Cowardly Lion was William Jennings Bryan (don't ask me the logic of that last one -- I can't remember the reasoning). I wrote about this once in connection with the big annual Judy Garland celebration in Grand Rapids, MN, Judy's hometown.

2) I once read a book called Oz. It was about Dorothy, an awkward, unhappy orphan around the turn of the 20th century, sent to live with her aunt and uncle on an incredibly bleak, grim farm on the isolated prairie in Kansas. Aunt Em was distant and emotionally unavailable. Uncle Henry started sexually abusing Dorothy. She had a school teacher named L. Frank Baum, who took pity on her and fantasized about Dorothy escaping her depressing existence by escaping to a marvelous colorful land.

These chapters alternated with chapters about young Judy Garland, her drug struggles, etc., and chapters about a guy in present time who had AIDS.

TWoO also figured into my early writing career. The very first book I ever tried to write was TWoO (I didn't realize you had to come up with a whole new book of your own; I thought you could just write what you knew, a book you were already familiar with). I remember I was so young that I spelled "of," "uv." My dad gently corrected me, and I've never misspelled it since (at least that I know uv).




Ooops! There you go! ;)

Interesting Katherine. Thanks for sharing that with us. I tend to agree with #2 a bit more than I do #1. And I STILL think there is a slight misogynistic theme to the story, but that might just be me. :)

Judy Garland died when I was around 7 years old, and it didn't escape the news here nor my young ears. I remember asking my Mom how she died and Mom told me she died from taking too much aspirin. :-\

For years and years I believed that. I suppose Mom felt I was too young to understand how she really died.
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Offline serious crayons

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #11 on: May 25, 2009, 01:44:36 am »
And I STILL think there is a slight misogynistic theme to the story, but that might just be me. :)

Oh, everybody's completely entitled to his/her own interpretation, David!  :)

Quote
Judy Garland died when I was around 7 years old, and it didn't escape the news here nor my young ears. I remember asking my Mom how she died and Mom told me she died from taking too much aspirin. :-\

For years and years I believed that. I suppose Mom felt I was too young to understand how she really died.

Actually, that seems like a pretty good explanation level for a 7-year-old!



Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #12 on: May 25, 2009, 09:49:41 am »
Oh, and the flying monkeys were frightening as well.

The cyclone did it for me.  :(
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #13 on: May 25, 2009, 09:56:11 am »
The Cowardly Lion was William Jennings Bryan (don't ask me the logic of that last one -- I can't remember the reasoning).

Well, he sorta looks like William Jennings Bryan. ...

Did the professor claim Baum was trying to make a coherent point, or was he just using things? Bryan was the big champion of free coinage of silver, famous for his "Cross of Gold" speech. I'm not sure what Baum would be saying by having Bryan follow the yellow brick road of the Gold Standard, unless Baum disagreed with Bryan's position.  ???
« Last Edit: June 12, 2012, 04:08:46 pm by Jeff Wrangler »
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #14 on: May 25, 2009, 10:20:51 am »
Did the professor claim Baum was trying to make a coherent point, or was he just using things? Bryan was the big champion of free coinage of silver, famous for his "Cross of Gold" speach. I'm not sure what Baum would be saying by having Bryan follow the yellow brick road of the Gold Standard, unless Baum disagreed with Bryan's position.  ???

Isn't Wikipedia amazing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz#The_Gold_Standard_representation_of_the_story

Quote
The Gold Standard representation of the story
See also: Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Some scholars have theorized that the images and characters used by Baum and Denslow closely resembled political images that were well known in the 1890s, specifically the debate of the day regarding monetary policy: the "Yellow Brick Road" represents the gold standard, the silver slippers (which were ruby slippers in the film version) represent the sixteen to one silver ratio (dancing down the road). Many other characters and story lines represent identifiable people or circumstances of the day. The wicked witches of the east and west represented the local banks and the railroad industry, respectively, both of which drove small farmers out of business. The scarecrow represents the farmers of the Populist party, who managed to get out of debt by making more silver coinage. The return to bimetalism would increase inflation, thus lowering the real value of their debts. The Tin Woodman represents the factory workers of the industrialized North, whom the Populists saw as being so hard-pressed to work grueling hours for little money that the workers had lost their human hearts and become mechanized themselves. (See Second Industrial Revolution) Toto was thought to be short for teetotaler, another word for a prohibitionist; it should be noted that William Jennings Bryan, the fiery popular candidate (possibly the Lion character) from the Populist Party, was a teetotaler himself. Bryan also fits the allegorical reference to the Cowardly Lion in that he retreated from his support of free silver after economic conditions improved in the late 1890s. However, it has also been suggested the cowardly Lion represented Wall Street investors, given the economic climate of the time. The Munchkins represented the common people (serfdom), while the emerald city represented Washington and its green-paper money delusion. The Wizard, a charlatan who tricks people into believing he wields immense power, would represent the President. The kiss from the Good Witch of the North is the electoral mandate; Dorothy must destroy the Wicked Witch of the West—the old West Coast "establishment" (money) with water (the US was suffering from drought). Moreover, "Oz" is the abbreviation for the measuring of these precious metals: ounces.

Some biographers and scholars of Baum disagree, pointing to details of Baum's biography, his own statements and writing about the purpose of his book, and the lack of contemporary press discussing these perceived metaphors. The consensus is that the books are written solely for the pleasure of Baum's younger readers, to give them a sense of possibility and imagination.

Here are a couple of scholarly articles about "Oz: a Parable on Populism," for those who want MUCH more detail. The former looks like more fun to read, but I believe the latter disputes the former.

http://www.amphigory.com/oz.htm


http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/Populism.htm




Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #15 on: May 25, 2009, 04:48:57 pm »
Quote
Bryan also fits the allegorical reference to the Cowardly Lion in that he retreated from his support of free silver after economic conditions improved in the late 1890s.

That could explain it.  :)
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #16 on: May 26, 2009, 04:57:24 pm »
I didn't realize the movie will be 70 this year, so we are likely to be hearing a lot about it. An interesting factoid is that the shoes were originally silver in the story. The producers changed them to red to show off their Technicolor technology. Dang, that blows my theory about Dorothy putting on the red dress shoes.
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Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #17 on: June 12, 2012, 03:37:08 pm »
Time to bump this thread in honour of Judy Garland's birthday (as Jeff Wrangler [thanks, Jeff] reminded us)! Guess who's on tap to play Ms. Garland in a biopic? Our own Anne Hathaway!! If Michelle = Marilyn Monroe, then Anne = Judy Garland!!

Anyone remember that old movie with Sean Connery called Zardoz? Why would that be relevant here, I wonder???
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #18 on: June 12, 2012, 04:15:00 pm »
If you pay close attention to The Wizard of Oz, you can catch a reference to a segment that was not included in the final version of the film.

As the Wicked Witch of the West sends her flying monkeys to capture Dorothy and Toto, she tells them that she has sent an insect ahead of the monkeys "to take the fight out of them" (Dorothy and the others). The witch's comment about the insect is a reference to a musical number called "The Jitterbug," which remains in existence on film but was not included in the final cut.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline southendmd

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Re: The Wizard of OZ: A cautionary tale for girls?
« Reply #19 on: June 12, 2012, 05:35:29 pm »
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYHeW5_lYaY&feature=related[/youtube]

The Jitterbug!