THE WIZARD OF OZ

by L. Frank Baum

The Symbolism of Oz Characters and Images

Dorothy

• naïve, young and simple, represents the American people.

• She is Everyman, led astray and who seeks the way back home

The cyclone • used in the 1890s as a

metaphor for a political revolution that would transform the drab country into a land of color and unlimited prosperity.

• The cyclone was used by editorial cartoonists of the 1890s to represent political upheaval

Wicked Witch of the East

• symbolizes the large industrial corporations and eastern finance

• By killing the Wicked Witch of the East, Dorothy freed the Munchkins, or the "little people."

Munchkins

• little people—ordinary citizens of the East

• Baum tells us, the Wicked Witch of the East had kept the little Munchkin people "in bondage for many years, making them slave for her night and day."

Munchkins are the Little People as shown in this 1896 Judge cartoon; the Yellow Kid (center) was one of the first color comic strip characters.

The Lollipop Guild

• child labor

Scarecrow

• A Midwestern Farmer • farmers do need some

aid

Tin Woodman• the dehumanized

industrial worker• badly mistreated by the

Wicked Witch of the East who rules Munchkin Country before the cyclone creates a political revolution and kills her.

• rusted and helpless—ineffective until he starts to work together with the Scarecrow (the farmer)

Cowardly Lion

• represents William Jennings Bryan

• Populists efforts to create a coalition between farmers and industrial workers were unsuccessful.

silver shoes (changed to ruby in the 1939 movie) • silver slippers play a key

role in the political-economic imagery of the story

• Populists wanted "bimetallism", or the use of both silver and gold as the monetary standard

• Populist movement embraced the idea of "free silver"

yellow brick roadthe gold standard

Emerald Citythe Capitol

Oz

abbreviation of the standard measurement of gold, the ounce

Wicked Witch of the West

• difficult physical environment in which farmers on the Great Plains were trying to make their living.

• a drought was driving many farmers out of business in the 1890s

• Dorothy kills the Wicked Witch of the West by dousing her with a bucket of water.

Glinda, the Good Witch

• wicked witches are from the east and west, while the good witches are from the north and south

• from those parts of the country where the Populists had the greatest influence—the Midwest and the South.

The Wizard

• represents the president of the United States

• The president in office during the 1896 election was Grover Cleveland, who was known as the "Great Obstructionist" (supported the gold standard)

Toto• likely a reference to prohibitionists (that is, "teetotalers")

• important allies of the Populists in the free silver coalition

The Winged Monkeys • represent the Indians of the Great Plains • banished from the northern woods and placed

under authoritarian rule in the West.