Essay on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz projects its message in a very subtle unsuspected way. For a child the story is just a magical story full of colors but underlying the colors “Baum created a children’s story with a symbolic allegory implicit within its story line and characterization” (50). The book is full of symbolism, when Dorothy lands on West Witch with her house, she is given a pair of silver slippers by the Good Witch of the North. She is

Dorothy and her friends finally got to Emerald City. They finally got to see the Wiz and he told them that he would not grant any of their wishes unless she killed the wicked witch of the West. Dorothy and all of her friends were really disappointed. Eventually, Dorothy and her friends went to see the wicked witch of the West and the witch was very mean to them. The witch really wanted Dorothy’s slippers but she refused to give them to her. Dorothy is starting to get discouraged because the witch seemed to be more powerful than she was.

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.

She then gave Dorothy what she had been looking for throughout the entire novel, a way home, something the Wizard failed to give her. ““Your Silver Shoes will carry you over the desert”” (Baum 133). Dorothy had the answer to her question the entire time, but she was meant to help all the other characters along the way, really making her the heroine of the story.

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.

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 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.

I thought that what was most interesting about the scene was how the director introduced us the viewer to the world of Oz. This is a very important scene in the movie because it is the first time we are seeing this magical place. It is important that we as the viewer find it to be just as amazing and awe inspiring as Dorothy does when she walks into it for the first time. We are supposed to identify with Dorothy here as she walks out of her home and into Munchkin city to see this new world she has fallen

The Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum was published on May 17, 1900, and the original movie was made in 1939 (produced by Mervyn LeRoy). Both the book and movie are similar. The story is about a little girl named Dorothy who is carried away from home by a cyclone. She ends up in the land of the Munchkins where she meets little people and a witch. Once she meets the witch she is told that in order for her to get back home she has to go to the Emerald City to speak to Oz. On her journey to Oz she meets three characters: the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. These three characters also want something from Oz. The Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin Man wants a heart, and the Cowardly Lion wants courage. Although the book and the

Oz is shot in bright and vibrant colours, which pertains to the idea of a magical land that appears very opposed to the dull and colourless real world of Kansas, assisting on taking the viewer on the journey ‘over the rainbow’. This goal oriented plot in The Wizard of Oz follows a pattern of development that encourages the viewer to expect Dorothy to reach her desired goal. The viewer then sees each action of Dorothy’s to be a progress of this desire to go home to Kansas.

Primarily, The Wizard of Oz focuses on Dorothy (Judy Garland), a young, beautiful girl from Kansas, who is taken, along with her dog Toto (Terry),

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.

In the movie: It tells the story of a girl named Dorothy, who ends up in a tornado and gets hurled away from her farm in Kansas to a land that is not like anything she has experienced before. After Dorothy’s house falls and kills the Wicked Witch in the first scene, Dorothy is welcomed by the Munchkins. The kind witch, Glinda, appears and explains to Dorothy that in order to find out about getting back home, she needs to follow the yellow brick road. This road leads her to Emerald city, where she must ask the grand Wizard to get her back to Kansas. Along her way down the yellow brick road Dorothy encounters some characters who all have something they want to ask the wizard. However, when they finally arrive at the Emerald City, they discover the wizard is just a fraud and that everything they had been searching for they can find deep within themselves (metaphorically rather than physically).

“There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”, repeated Dorothy. A young girl trying to go back home to Kansas after a cyclone lands her and her dog, Toto, in the Land of Oz. There Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, the TinMan, and the Cowardly Lion who are all in need of something that is considered important to them; a brain, a heart, and courage. Along the way, they have to travel to Emerald City to see the Wizard of Oz, directed by the Good Witch of the North, especially for Dorothy to get back home. However, Dorothy and the gang run into problems with the Wicked Witch of the West, who wants Dorothy’s ruby slippers (which was originally the Wicked