The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz

An Allegory

By

Frank Baum

Frank Baum

• Baum was a restless dreamer who during his lifetime tried to succeed at several different careers.

• From 1888-1891 he ran a store and newspaper in South Dakota where he experienced the dreary, desolate, grey life that many farmers on the plains experienced.

Baum and Populism

• Baum was an avid supporter of William Jennings Bryan.

• Baum’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was both a delightful children’s tale and allegory of the silver movement.

• Published in 1900, the book was an immediate success.

• In 1939 the book was made into the spectacularly successful film.

American Fairy Tales

• Baum wanted to write American fairy tales to ‘bear the stamp of our times and depict the progressive fairies of today.”

• The land of Oz reflected his belief in American values of freedom and independence, love of family, self-reliance, individualism, and sympathy for the underdog.

Life On The Prairie

• When farmers first began to settle in the Great Plains, people poured into the area to stake their claims.

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 opened the land to settlement of 50 million acres of land.

Life On The Prairie

• In later years the railroads came.• Advertisements touted the fertile soil.• Land was plentiful.• Rainfall seemed to increase each year.• Crop prices were decent.• New farming methods and equipment

increased crop yield.

All Is Not As It Seems

• Life on the prairie is never an easy matter.• The land is flat, lonely, and windswept.• The land had an effect on people that was

difficult to describe to Americans living back in the east.

The Droughts

• Starting in 1887 a series of droughts hit Kansas.

• Three out of four farms were mortgaged.• Thousands of settlers had given up and

headed back to the cities of the eastern United States.

• Others trusted in the Farmers’ Alliance and pinned their hopes on free coinage of silver.

Free Silver

Gold represented the standard of currency.It also represented the idle rich of the

industrial northeast.Silver stood for the common folk.Added to the currency in the form of silver

dollars, it meant more money, higher crop prices, and a return to prosperity.

Or so the supporters of this idea believed.

Dorothy

• Dorothy represents every person.

• She is good, just, and fair.

The Land Of Oz

• The very name of Oz itself is a play on the conflict over monetary policy.

• Oz was a familiar abbreviation to those involved in the fight over the ratio of silver to gold (16 to 1).

The Cyclone

The Cyclone• Dorothy is carried by

the cyclone from drought stricken, impoverished Kansas, to a beautiful, lush land of riches and witches, Oz.

• The cyclone represents a political victory of silver forces at the polls.

The Wicked Witch of the East• The Wicked Witch of the

East represents the eastern money power, eastern bankers, and those favoring gold.

• The Wicked Witch enslaved the Munchkins, representing the treatment of common workers.

The Munchkins• The Munchkins represent

the common people.• They also represent

workers who have been “enslaved” by the industrial system. They had been “in bondage for many years, making them slave for her day and night.”

The Scarecrow

• He has been told he has no brain but actually possesses great common sense.

• He represents farmers.

The Tin Woodsman

• He represents the industrial workers.

• He fears he has become heartless.

• Having stood in the same position (factory work) for a year he cannot move.

The Cowardly Lion• People are frightened of his

roar, but he is really a coward. He hopes Oz will give him courage.

• He represents William Jennings Bryan and other Populist reformers. They “roar” but no one listens, just as when the Lion struck the Tin woodsman but did not hurt him.

• Had Bryan become President he would have had power to force change. Then he would not be so “cowardly” after all.

“The Group”

• The “Group” represents the Populist factions.

• Their journey to Oz represents the Populists quest to gain political power by winning elections.

The Emerald City

• The Emerald City represents Washington, D.C.

• It is also colored green to represent greenbacks.

The Silver Slippers And The Yellow Brick Road

• Dorothy wears silver slippers to represent the silver standard.

• She walks on the yellow brick road to show the proper relationship between the two precious metals, gold and silver.

The Silver SlippersAnd The Yellow Brick Road

• Like many of her countrymen, Dorothy does not at first recognize the power of the silver slippers.

• A kiss from the Good Witch of the North protects her on the road.

The Wizard of Oz• He orders them to kill the

Wicked Witch of the West (no competition for Eastern Bankers) .

• The Wizard (the money power or the President of the U.S.) is only a charlatan.

• His power rests on myth and illusion (Cleveland repealing the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to restore “confidence” in the gold standard and the economy).

The Wizard of Oz• To each of the group, Oz

(the President/government) represents something different (voters want something different from politicians and they promise it to them).

• When unmasked, the wizard is revealed to be nothing more than a common man. He has no answers and says, “I am just a common man.

Wicked Witch of the West

• The Wicked Witch of the West represented mortgage companies, heartless nature, and anything opposing progress for farmers.

• They must be defeated (killed) for the farmers to have relief.

The Winged Monkeys• The flying monkeys

represent the Native Americans.

• The head monkey says, “Once…we were a free people, living happily in a great forest, flying from tree to tree, eating nuts and fruit, doing just as we pleased without calling anyone “master.” This was many years ago, long before Oz came out of the clouds to rule over this land.”

The Winged Monkeys

• Under the control of evil, the Monkeys do evil; under the control of good, the Monkeys do good.

• The Monkey King says, “We belong to this land alone and cannot leave it.”

The Good Witch of the South

• Glinda tells Dorothy she can go home anytime she wants. The Silver slippers are the key (silver monetary policy).

• Glinda represents the South were support for silver was strong.

Dorothy Kills The Wicked Witch of the West

• Dorothy is enslaved by the Wicked Witch of the West.

• Initially she is just glad to be able to work (the farmers were glad to keep their farms).

• She kills the Wicked Witch of the West with water (the farmers needed water to end the droughts in Kansas).

The Silver Shoes

• They represent the silver standard.

• All Dorothy ever had to do to go home (prosperity), was click her heals together (adopt a silver money policy).