The History Behind The Wizard Of Oz

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L.Frank Baum has been an excessively popular fairy tale among the kids and adults. It has provided us with great plays and musical comedies. As most of us do not tend to relate a fairy tale with the political movements happening around us, Henry Littlefield was the first to write an outstanding article “The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism” in which he made a bold inference that the Wizard of Oz was a book that portrayed the United States of America as it entered the twentieth century. He argued that the story was perhaps a metaphor for the Populist movement. After doing much research on both the Wizard of Oz and Littlefield’s article I can say that the children’s fairy tale by Baum was indeed a parable on Populism.

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 placement of a prop or altering the way the light shines on a scene, however insignificant they may seem, are ways that the director can select and control meaning in a film. Such is in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), specifically during the scene where Dorothy (Judy Galand) has been locked in the Wicked Witch of the West's (Margaret Hamilton) castle room by herself; many aspects of mise-en-scene are noticeable. Many of the elements of the scene she is in contribute to her state and other aspects of the movie. The setting and props of the film all seem to centralize to where she is and how she got there. The light focus' just on Dorothy but also amplifies the intensity of the situation she is in. The behavior of

The Wizard of Oz is an early film but editing is used quite a bit. First off, the absence of color in the beginning and the ending of the film. This sets an overall feeling of Dorothy being home. Next the film turns to color once Dorothy dreams of being in a different world, the color, yet again, set an overall mood for Dorothy in this new world “Over the rainbow.” The first steps of Dorothy being in the world of The Wizard of Oz gives off an example of inside and outside editing. The shot begins with a close up of Dorothy’s face and the camera slowly moves out to show everything else around Dorothy, which was the start of the yellow brick road and Munchkin land. After the viewer see all of that, the camera moves back in to Dorothys face when she says that they are not in Kansas anymore. One editing transition used a lot in The Wizard of Oz is the fade-in and dissolve. Another is cross-cut, two events occurring at the same

Scene: This scene in the film comes just after the house has been picked up in the twister. Dorothy's house has been lifted up into the sky and suddenly dropped back down to earth in the middle of the Land of Oz. In the scene itself, Dorothy leaves her home to see that she is "Not in Kansas anymore," and finds the new and amazing world of the munchkin city in front of her. She also meets Gwendela the good witch as her journey in Oz begins.

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.

What most individuals can 't seem to decipher is that The Wizard of Oz referenced several late 1800’s political issues and ideas. Whether these references are true or not is difficult to say.

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

The Wizard has modern ideals for Oz and has harsh views towards anything seen as more traditional or “royalist,” such as one of the several religions in Oz, Lurlinism, as stated in the quote, “...public Lurlinism - even as a joke - bordered on being intolerably retrograde, even royalist. And that did not do in the Wizard’s reign.” He rules over Oz as a dictator, and is not open to opposition from citizens; his word is final even when there is logic against him, according to the quote, “‘I don’t believe, Elphie, that the Wizard is open to entertaining arguments, even by as august an Animal as Doctor Dillamond.’” The Wizard causes the oppression of Oz, therefore creating the Marxist environment of Wicked.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a fictional adventure/fantasy that was written by L. Frank Baum in 1965. L. Frank Baum was born near Chittenango, New York in 1856. Frank grew up with a heart condition so he couldn’t play physically like other children so he developed a creative side, so he decided to write stories.

Could you ever imagine if The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum didn’t have a yellow brick road or an Emerald City? The colors chosen are significant and give the story a deeper meaning. Three colors that stand out in the beginning, middle and the end of the novel are gray, yellow and green. In the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum’s use of color is symbolic by associating distinct colors with specific settings and characters.

“The cyclone had set the house down into a country of marvelous beauty.” is merely just the beginning of the tale of Dorothy traveling through a mysterious land, making interesting friends, and eventually slaying an evil witch. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an epic by L. Frank Baum is known by children and adults alike all over. And what exactly makes this tale of a naive little girl an epic? The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an epic due to its characteristics, conventions, archetypes, and the way it follows the stereotypical hero’s journey.

While there are many themes that L. Frank Baum writes about in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that focuses on a young, maturing girl named Dorothy Gale; that is living in a grey world and then suddenly her life is full of color after a cyclone. Throughout the story, Dorothy Gale is reminded that the land of Oz is beautiful and much more interesting that Kansas ever will and it takes her awhile to realize it along her adventurous plan. The two themes that stand out throughout the story is the childhood to maturity that Dorothy progresses in and a twisted way that makes you see the virtue in the story, also known as the disability of it all. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not all just a children's fairytale. Although the land of Oz is depicted as

Stories are told through various forms of literature, and the overall point of telling a story is to convey a message, a meaning that the author wants the reader to interpret and understand. The author does

In 1939, Victor Fleming made a film version of L. Frank Baum’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” However, both the novel and the film focuses or touches on the same moral, it features the protagonist Dorothy who resides in Kansas the farm, along with her aunt Em and uncle Henry as well as her dog Toto. Both Baum’s novel and Fleming’s 1939 film adaptation the setting is in Kansas which is described as a small farm which Dorothy lives in which in Baum’s novel is picturized as gloomy, grey and dull. Throughout Fleming’s adaptation of Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” there are a number of differences which presents itself in a direct manner on screen as well as similarities. The variety of changes in the film’s adaptation tends to take