The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a controversial novel written by L. Frank Baum in 1900, presenting a fiction story of four characters trying to find their identities and get their wishes in the land of great wizard Oz. This novel is controversial because it contains dual meanings. Children can interpret it as a precious story of friendship with moral values, but at the same time, people, especially the novel observers, found political issues of Washington D.C in the era of 19th century inside it.


Baum himself first promoted his works by sending Father Goose, a collection of nonsense poetry, to one of book publisher companies in America in 1899. This book was accepted and it became the best-selling children’s book of the year. Getting the success, Baum then tried to publish a children novel titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to the same company having published his first work. And surprisingly, it became the most wanted novel for over two years and Baum’s name was rapidly recognized after that.


Seeing his experience as an expert children’s book writer, I do not have any doubt of Baum’s success in putting silently a political satire beyond the four main characters, Dorothy, Tinwoodman, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow. It could be considered as an achievement for it is not an easy job to create unique figures for children to represent important figures or persons in a real life. So, it is like combining two contradictory purposes in one beautiful case.


Baum started the story by telling a life of a little girl named Dorothy. She is a cheerful and tough girl. She is never bored or angry although her uncle and aunt in Kansas, the only family she has, never smile and rarely talk. She thanks God for having Toto and she is happy to play with it.


The conflict starts when Dorothy, together with her house and dogs, are brought accidentally by a cyclone to the land of the Munchkins and greeted by a good witch there. She is told by the witch to go to the Emerald City by following the yellow brick road and meet the great Oz if she wants to go back to her home. People in that land believe that Oz can solve any problems and grant any wishes for he is the greatest witch ever. Since then, she starts the journey, meets her three new unique friends, and leads them all to go to the Land of Oz.


Through Dorothy, we can see Baum’s way of conveying the deep role of the main character. He put a complicated situation for common children to her, but he made her able to face it all. Even a simple Dorothy is designed as a leader of the three persons in doing a challenging journey.


Dorothy’s patience, bravery, and wisdom are the most dominant elements readers can learn. This little girl motivates all people, especially children, to keep struggling for bad and good things and also smiling even in a complicated situation. She indirectly also encourages all people to dedicate themselves to the others and help each other for good. ‘Little thing can bring big thing’.


The other three characters whom Dorothy meets are also designed to have their own problems. Scarecrow is the first character having a problem of confidence and intelligence. He thinks he is a fool for he has no brain and does nothing but to scare the crows in the field. Tinwoodman is the second character having a problem of confidence and feelings. He thinks he is a heartless person for all he does is only chopping the trees off. And the last character having a problem of confidence and courage is Cowardly Lion. He thinks he is a coward and only able to roar. All of them finally join Dorothy to the Emerald City to ask for their wishes.


There are two repetitions the writer clearly made related to those three supporting characters. The first is the problem of confidence and the second is the things they want to achieve badly, brain, heart, and courage.


The repetition of the problem of confidence brings the readers to get an important message of being confident. It does sound simple, but from the story we can see that being not confident can be an obstacle for a person to make progress. Actually, the repetition is not really needed to state a single purpose, but because this novel is written for children, it can help them understand and remember the message easily.


Then, the repetition of the wishes is more like a clue for readers to figure out symbols or hidden meanings beyond Tinwoodman, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion. To affirm the possibility, there is an interpretation of Professor Quentin Taylor of Rogers State University stating that the characters in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz contain a symbol of Populist movement of 1890s against the economic policy at the time.


Populism itself is defined by the Cambridge dictionary as political ideas and activities that are intended to represent ordinary people's needs and wishes . If I relate it to the four main characters in this novel, there is a connection between the theory of Populism and its movement with them.


First, the four main characters are ordinary people, which mean they could be the representatives of Populists. Dorothy does not come from a wealthy family for it is explained in the novel that her house is small and her uncle and aunt only works as farmers. Scarecrow and Tinwoodman could not also be considered as elites for they work so hard inelegantly in the field and forest.


Second, all the characters have the wishes like the Populists had for real. ‘Brain’, ‘Heart’, and ‘Courage’ are the main symbols emphasized here. For example, ‘Brain’ is like an indirect complaint of Scarecrow or agricultural workers that they actually have brains to think for their own progress. Almost the same with ‘Brain’, ‘Courage’ is also like a proof of the Cowardly Lion or the important figure of Populist that he is actually able to bring his people to a better economic condition.


Basically, it is back to the readers themselves to choose whether to interpret the novel as a political satire or moral lesson, although many have said that it is truly an allegory. But overall, this novel has successfully presented both meanings perfectly without offending or judging the representatives of the figures in the real life too much. So, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is good for children to read and valuable as a historical document.


source :
http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/oz.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populism