Sexual Objectification Of Women In Wizard Of Oz

Dorothy start on her way down the yellow brick road and meets three important characters. First she meets the scarecrow with no brain. He represents Farmers and agricultural workers who are ignorant of many city things but honest and hardworking. Farmers were string supporters of the populist movement and the scarecrow ends up being a strong supporter of Dorothy throughout the entire film. Next they meet the tinman. The tinman represents industrial workers. He is a lumberjack whose body has been replaced with metal. This represents how many workers had been dehumanized and viewed as only a means to make money. Finally they meet the cowardly lion. When they first meet the lion he does his best to scare them but ends up being afraid of them. He tells them he wants to go the emerald city so the wizard can give him courage. He represents politician William Jennings Bryan. Bryan was a populist presidential candidate and the out spoken leader of the populist movement. He had been criticized as being a coward for not supporting the U.S. and its decision to go to war with Spain. Bryan wanted to get into Washington so he could change American politics. This reflects the lion wanting to go to the emerald city to get his courage from the wizard. Along the way they run into the wicked witch of the west. She tries to stop them from getting to the emerald city.

The role gender holds in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not one many were familiar with at the time it was written. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz reverses the accepted gender roles of its time, women taking control, even helping men in times of need. This idea is depicted throughout the entire novel, affecting almost every character introduced. This novel essentially questions and challenges the accepted beliefs on the roles of gender in the society at that time, showing how things would be if roles were different. With this, through a description of the characters, you can see who was empowered by Baum and who held an inferior role.

The Wizard of Oz is a classic known by all. The plot is fairly simple. Poor bored Dorothy is sick of her normal boring life on her Aunt and Uncles farm in Kansas and decides to run away to a more exciting life. Her plans are changed when she meets a fortune teller who convinces her to go back home. Unfortunately, as she is headed back home a horrible storm starts and she and her dog Toto are blown away, along with her house. When she lands, she comes outside to see that she has landed on a person with red shoes. She is met by tiny people and a witch called Glinda who tells her that she has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East. Dorothy tells Glinda she wants to go home, and Glinda tells her if she follows the yellow brick road she will end up in the Emerald City where the Wonderful Wizard of Oz can help get her home.

Literature is not simply a reflection of society; it is in actuality much more powerful. Literature draws upon society and creates its own meanings and images. It possesses the power to either nourish or discourage societal values and ideals. Hence, stereotypical views on gender relations in society are reinforced by literary depictions of men and women. The American literary canon is a collection of books that are widely accepted as influential in shaping Western culture. Stereotypes are evident throughout these texts, and often serve to justify the continuance of traditional roles. More specifically, women seem to be the target of cataloguing and other negative depictions. Classic books that are identified as part of the American literary canon tend to portray female characters in a way that emphasizes their inferiority. The depiction of females in classic American literature promotes a stereotypical view of women in American society.

The Wizard of Oz uses film form by using similarity and repetition. With Dorothy being the main character, she is always reappearing in the film. As well as all of the characters, The Tin Man, The Lion, and The Scarecrow, have similarities to Dorothy. Each of them need something, Dorothy needs to go back home, The Tin Man needs a brain, The Scarecrow needs a heart, and The Lion needs courage. The film also progresses from the beginning to the end, as well as the characters. Dorothy starts at one spot, follows the yellow brick road and eventually makes it to her destination to see The Wizard of Oz, gets what

Judy garland who is purportedly named Dorothy dale in the move the wizard of Oz is the main protagonist in most of the Oz novels. Frank Baum created the fictional character who has been idolized in the American movie culture because of the character she has played in most movies, books, animations, games and on TV. At first she appeared in the novel the wonderful wizard of Oz which was created in 1900 and thereafter, she was able to reappear in most of the sequels showing her importance in various adaptations, notably, in the 1939 film named the wizard of Oz (Pfefferman, 2013). in the movie, the wizard of Oz, she acts as a young orphaned girl from one of the farms in Kansas which was owned by uncle henry and aunt Em. Life in the farm is considered to be composed of hard work and it provided little opportunity for Dorothy to have excitement in the farm. She is able to express her desires of exploring what was beyond Kansas through the use of a wishful song of what might be lying at the other end of the rainbow. One of the richest people in the town gets a permit of obtaining her dog, Toto, and she tries to save her life by running away. She changes her mind and decided to go back home when a tornado drops from the sky and everything changes radically in the movie.

Feminist ideas are used throughout this story in both explicit and implicit ways to help describe the gender roles placed upon females in the 1950s. “That figure was a garish blond showgirl, a Hollywood ‘sexpot’ of no interest to intellectuals”. (Page 79) The author explicitly includes the

The final theme of the wizard of Oz is the need for friendship. In Kansas Dorothy lacks friends other than her trusting companion ToTo. However in the land of OZ Dorothy makes new friends who provide her with companionship emotional support and protection. The scarecrow, the Tin Man and the lion help Dorothy cross rivers, battle angry bees and wolves, and save her from sleeping forever in the field of poppies. In return her friends rely on Dorothy to get them to the Wizard of OZ.. In a munchkins home the author states “the woman now gave Dorothy a bed to sleep in, and Toto lay beside her, while

During the nineteenth and twentieth century there was a number of changes made in America. Woman were looked at as less than back then and to a certain degree they still are today. There was a number of women that died or went insane because of the standards that they had to meet in order to be considered good women. In this research paper I will talk about the experience of the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper and Blanche DuBois from the story A Streetcar Named Desire. It will be shown within these pages how the moral and societal standards for women were far different than they were for men, and how the standards changed over the years. Furthermore it will be shown how this effected the women of those two stories.

Fairy tales are unique to literature as readers have the freedom to visualize an extraordinary world filled with imagination, excitement, and wonder, leaving reality to linger at the back of the mind. L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a classic tale about Dorothy’s adventurous trip along the Yellow Brick Road, finding her way back to her Aunt Em in Kansas City. However, many critics thoroughly analyzed the true meaning behind this classic tale to have a more profound message than simply a friendly children’s story. The theories developed from the interpretations of populist, feminist, and religious critics create a fascinating perspective of the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Dorothy adheres to stereotypes and chooses to follow in the footsteps of Glinda. In Edward Recchia’s, “There’s No Place Like Home: The Midwest in American Film Musicals,” he talks about the way Dorothy provocatively defeats the witches saying, “the witches are destroyed not through consciously antagonistic acts by Dorothy

In The Wizard of Oz, the ordinary world and the beginning of the adventure are presented with stunning visual effects. Dorothy, the protagonist, is shown struggling in her ordinary world. She is confronted by the mean neighbor Miss Gulch who wants to take away Dorothy’s dog Toto and give him to the animal control authorities because of Toto’s bad behavior. Dorothy reacts childishly with a temper tantrum, begging her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em not to let Miss Gulch have her way. She confronts Miss Gulch when she tries to take Toto, saying, “You wicked old witch! Uncle Henry, Auntie Em, don't let 'em take Toto! Don't let her take him -- please!” (The Wizard of Oz). In a fit of temper, Dorothy decides to run away because she thinks that it is the only way she can protect her dog from Miss Gulch. The plot picks up the story of Dorothy’s life at a rather bleak point. Dorothy is portrayed as powerless and directionless and she does not appreciate the gifts she has in her family and life. Her character flaws and areas of growth are clear from such behavior. She seeks to be the leader of her own life but she lets temper get in the way of her enacting effective change. Furthermore, in her decision to run away Dorothy shows that she does not appreciate those who love her or the blessings of her loving home.

Picture a child sitting in front of a television watching the Wizard of Oz. To them, it is an assortment of magical beings, a land filled with wonderful places, with varieties of different colors. They do not picture it as something with far more meaning than just a plain fairytale. On the other hand, gender/feminist critics have been able to analyze the Wizard of Oz as well as Wicked, in order to find a more elaborate meaning behind the story itself. They have discussed what lies behind the story when it comes to the issue of sexism and masculinity towards the book itself as well as the characters. There are many concepts as well that help to further explain feminism and gender criticism. The four concepts that will be discussed

Many of the farmers from the West blamed their problems on the wealthy and industry. Later on in the text, Dorothy meets the Good Witch of the North. The Good Witch represents a Northern electorate who had supported populism. The Good Witch sends Dorothy to go to the Wizard of Oz, down the yellow brick road to Emerald City, who has the power to send her back to Kansas. The Good Witch also gives Dorothy the silver shoes, which also serves as protection. This can relate to the Bimetalism vs. Gold Standard. I say this because Dorothy shoes are silver and she is sent to go down the yellow brick road, which can be seen as gold bricks. This can be known as gold money. In this time, it was clear that silver vs. gold was important to the farmers involving the economy. The silver was supposed to be available for the working class, and would increase the amount of money for the working class. In the text, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion. The Scarecrow represents the western farmers, and how their hardships and troubles from inflation caused them to have doubts and problems with their money. The Tinman represents the American worker who mostly has populist views. He also represents how the worker felt dehumanized and was helpless. In addition to this, the Wicked Witch of the East put a spell on him that every time he swung his axe, he would chop a piece of him off. This would make his body smaller, in relation to his work being minimized by the

Throughout this essay I will be comparing and contrasting I’m glad I’m a Boy! I’m glad I’m a Girl! And William’s Doll. Both of these stories touch upon gender stereotypes and the characters not conforming to it. In the 20th century picture books began minimizing the discrimination against female characters, but these books say otherwise.