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The thesis achieved considerable popular interest and elaboration by many scholars in history, economics and other fields,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sanders |first1=Mitch |year=1991 | month=July |title=Setting the Standards on the Road to Oz |journal=[[The Numismatist]] |pages=1042–1050 |publisher=[[American Numismatic Association]] |url=http://www.money.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Online_Numismatist&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=13804 |accessdate=2011-10-28 }}</ref> but is not universally accepted.<ref name=parker1994 /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.turnmeondeadman.com/?option=com_content&id=54 |title=Responses to Littlefield — The Wizard of Oz |author=Gardner, Todd |date=2004 |accessdate=2011-11-28 }}</ref><ref name="gjovaag">{{Cite web| title=The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Frequently Asked Questions: The Books |url=http://thewizardofoz.info/faq02.html#20 |accessdate=2007-06-09 |last=Gjovaag |first=Eric |year=2006 |work=The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Website}}</ref> Certainly the 1901 musical version of "Oz", written by Baum, was for an adult audience and had numerous explicit references to contemporary politics,<ref name=swartz2000 /> though in these references Baum seems just to have been "playing for laughs."<ref name=dighe2002>{{Cite book |title=The historian's Wizard of Oz: reading L. Frank Baum's classic as a political and Monetary Allegory |editor-first=Ranjit S. |editor-last=Dighe |url=http://books.google.com/?id=WK3KHptGihwC&lpg=PR3&pg=RA1-PA102#v=onepage&q= |isbn=0-275-97418-9 |year=2002 }}</ref> The 1902 stage adaptation mentioned, by name, President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and other political celebrities.<ref name=taylor2004>{{Cite web |title=Money and Politics in the Land of Oz |author=Quentin P. Taylor |publisher=[[The Independent Institute]] |date=2004-12-02 |url=http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/oz.html |accessdate=2011-10-28 }}</ref> For example, the Tin Woodman wonders what he would do if he ran out of oil. "You wouldn't be as badly off as [[John D. Rockefeller]]," the Scarecrow responds, "He'd lose six thousand dollars a minute if that happened."<ref name=swartz2000>p. 34</ref>
The thesis achieved considerable popular interest and elaboration by many scholars in history, economics and other fields,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sanders |first1=Mitch |year=1991 | month=July |title=Setting the Standards on the Road to Oz |journal=[[The Numismatist]] |pages=1042–1050 |publisher=[[American Numismatic Association]] |url=http://www.money.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Online_Numismatist&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=13804 |accessdate=2011-10-28 }}</ref> but is not universally accepted.<ref name=parker1994 /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.turnmeondeadman.com/?option=com_content&id=54 |title=Responses to Littlefield — The Wizard of Oz |author=Gardner, Todd |date=2004 |accessdate=2011-11-28 }}</ref><ref name="gjovaag">{{Cite web| title=The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Frequently Asked Questions: The Books |url=http://thewizardofoz.info/faq02.html#20 |accessdate=2007-06-09 |last=Gjovaag |first=Eric |year=2006 |work=The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Website}}</ref> Certainly the 1901 musical version of "Oz", written by Baum, was for an adult audience and had numerous explicit references to contemporary politics,<ref name=swartz2000 /> though in these references Baum seems just to have been "playing for laughs."<ref name=dighe2002>{{Cite book |title=The historian's Wizard of Oz: reading L. Frank Baum's classic as a political and Monetary Allegory |editor-first=Ranjit S. |editor-last=Dighe |url=http://books.google.com/?id=WK3KHptGihwC&lpg=PR3&pg=RA1-PA102#v=onepage&q= |isbn=0-275-97418-9 |year=2002 }}</ref> The 1902 stage adaptation mentioned, by name, President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and other political celebrities.<ref name=taylor2004>{{Cite web |title=Money and Politics in the Land of Oz |author=Quentin P. Taylor |publisher=[[The Independent Institute]] |date=2004-12-02 |url=http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/oz.html |accessdate=2011-10-28 }}</ref> For example, the Tin Woodman wonders what he would do if he ran out of oil. "You wouldn't be as badly off as [[John D. Rockefeller]]," the Scarecrow responds, "He'd lose six thousand dollars a minute if that happened."<ref name=swartz2000>p. 34</ref>


Littlefield's knowledge of the 1890s was thin, and he made numerous errors, but since his article scholars in history,<ref name=parker1994>{{cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=David B. |year=1994 |title=The Rise and Fall of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a 'Parable on Populism' |journal=Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians | volume=15 |pages=49–63 |url=http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/Populism.htm |accessdate=2011-10-28 }}</ref> political science<ref name=ritter1997 /> and economics<ref name=hansen2002 >{{cite journal |last1=Hansen |first1=Bradley A. |year=2002 |title=The Fable of the Allegory: The Wizard of Oz in Economics |journal=Journal of Economic Education |volume=33 |issue=3 |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~econed/pdffiles/summer02/bhansen.pdf |accessdate=2011-10-28 | id={{JSTOR|1183440}} }}</ref> have asserted that the images and characters used by Baum closely resemble political images that were well known in the 1890s. Quentin Taylor, for example, claimed that many of the events and characters of the book resemble the actual political personalities, events and ideas of the 1890s.<ref name=taylor2004 /> Dorothy — naïve, young and simple — represents the American people. Dorothy can also represent the owners workers of the union. She is [[Everyman]], led astray and seeking the way back home.<ref name=taylor2004 /> Moreover, following the road of gold leads eventually only to the Emerald City, which may symbolize the fraudulent world of greenback paper money that only pretends to have value, or may symbolize the greenback value that is placed on gold (and for silver, possibly).<ref name=taylor2004 />
Littlefield's knowledge of the 1890s was thin, and he made numerous errors, but since his article scholars in history,<ref name=parker1994>{{cite journal |last1=Parker |first1=David B. |year=1994 |title=The Rise and Fall of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a 'Parable on Populism' |journal=Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians | volume=15 |pages=49–63 |url=http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/Populism.htm |accessdate=2011-10-28 }}</ref> political science<ref name=ritter1997 /> and economics<ref name=hansen2002 >{{cite journal |last1=Hansen |first1=Bradley A. |year=2002 |title=The Fable of the Allegory: The Wizard of Oz in Economics |journal=Journal of Economic Education |volume=33 |issue=3 |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~econed/pdffiles/summer02/bhansen.pdf |accessdate=2011-10-28 | id={{JSTOR|1183440}} }}</ref> have asserted that the images and characters used by Baum closely resemble political images that were well known in the 1890s. Quentin Taylor, for example, claimed that many of the events and characters of the book resemble the actual political personalities, events and ideas of the 1890s.<ref name=taylor2004 /> Dorothy — naïve, young and simple — represents the American people. She is [[Everyman]], led astray and seeking the way back home.<ref name=taylor2004 /> Moreover, following the road of gold leads eventually only to the Emerald City, which may symbolize the fraudulent world of greenback paper money that only pretends to have value.<ref name=taylor2004 /> It is ruled by a scheming politician (the Wizard) who uses publicity devices and tricks to fool the people (and even the Good Witches) into believing he is benevolent, wise and powerful when really he is selfish and cruel. He sends Dorothy into severe danger hoping she will rid him of his enemy the Wicked Witch of the West. He is powerless and, as he admits to Dorothy, "I'm a very bad Wizard."<ref>Michael Patrick Hearn, ''The annotated Wizard of Oz: the wonderful Wizard of Oz'' (2000) p. 271</ref>


Littlefield and other historians<ref>{{cite book |title=William Jennings Bryan: An Uncertain Trumpet |last=Leinwand |first=Gerald |year=2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=074255158X }}</ref> have suggested that Baum modeled the [[Cowardly Lion]] after politician [[William Jennings Bryan]], or politicians in general. [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] mocked Bryan as indecisive, or a coward, which became the basis of the character.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Geer |first1=John G. |last2=Rochon |first2=Thomas R. |year=2004 |title=William Jennings Bryan on the Yellow Brick Road |journal=The Journal of American Culture |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=59–63 |doi=10.1111/j.1542-734X.1993.00059.x }}</ref>
Littlefield and other historians<ref>{{cite book |title=William Jennings Bryan: An Uncertain Trumpet |last=Leinwand |first=Gerald |year=2006 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=074255158X }}</ref> have suggested that Baum modeled the [[Cowardly Lion]] after politician [[William Jennings Bryan]], or politicians in general. [[Republican Party (United States)|Republicans]] mocked Bryan as indecisive, or a coward, which became the basis of the character.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Geer |first1=John G. |last2=Rochon |first2=Thomas R. |year=2004 |title=William Jennings Bryan on the Yellow Brick Road |journal=The Journal of American Culture |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=59–63 |doi=10.1111/j.1542-734X.1993.00059.x }}</ref>

Revision as of 16:35, 28 October 2011

Cartoonist W. A. Rogers in 1906 sees the political uses of Oz: he depicts William Randolph Hearst as Scarecrow stuck in his own Ooze in Harper's Weekly

Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz include treatments of the modern fairy tale (written by L. Frank Baum and first published in 1900) as an allegory or metaphor for the political, economic and social events of America in the 1890s. Scholars have examined four quite different versions of Oz: the novel of 1900[1], the Broadway Play of 1901[2], the Hollywood film of 1939[3], and the numerous followup Oz novels written after 1900 by Baum and others.[4] The political interpretations focus on the first three, and emphasize the close relationship between the visual images and the story line to the political interests of the day. Biographers report that Baum had been a political activist in the 1890s with a special interest in the money question of gold and silver, and the illustrator Denslow was a full time editorial cartoonist for a major daily newspaper. For the 1901 Broadway production Baum inserted explicit references to prominent political characters such as President Theodore Roosevelt.

Overview

In a 1964 article[5], educator and historian Henry Littlefield outlined an allegory in the book of the late 19th-century debate regarding monetary policy. According to this view, for instance, the "Yellow Brick Road" represents the gold standard, and the silver slippers (ruby in the 1939 film version) represent the Silverite sixteen to one silver ratio (dancing down the road).

The thesis achieved considerable popular interest and elaboration by many scholars in history, economics and other fields,[6] but is not universally accepted.[7][8][9] Certainly the 1901 musical version of "Oz", written by Baum, was for an adult audience and had numerous explicit references to contemporary politics,[2] though in these references Baum seems just to have been "playing for laughs."[10] The 1902 stage adaptation mentioned, by name, President Theodore Roosevelt and other political celebrities.[11] For example, the Tin Woodman wonders what he would do if he ran out of oil. "You wouldn't be as badly off as John D. Rockefeller," the Scarecrow responds, "He'd lose six thousand dollars a minute if that happened."[2]

Littlefield's knowledge of the 1890s was thin, and he made numerous errors, but since his article scholars in history,[7] political science[1] and economics[12] have asserted that the images and characters used by Baum closely resemble political images that were well known in the 1890s. Quentin Taylor, for example, claimed that many of the events and characters of the book resemble the actual political personalities, events and ideas of the 1890s.[11] Dorothy — naïve, young and simple — represents the American people. She is Everyman, led astray and seeking the way back home.[11] Moreover, following the road of gold leads eventually only to the Emerald City, which may symbolize the fraudulent world of greenback paper money that only pretends to have value.[11] It is ruled by a scheming politician (the Wizard) who uses publicity devices and tricks to fool the people (and even the Good Witches) into believing he is benevolent, wise and powerful when really he is selfish and cruel. He sends Dorothy into severe danger hoping she will rid him of his enemy the Wicked Witch of the West. He is powerless and, as he admits to Dorothy, "I'm a very bad Wizard."[13]

Littlefield and other historians[14] have suggested that Baum modeled the Cowardly Lion after politician William Jennings Bryan, or politicians in general. Republicans mocked Bryan as indecisive, or a coward, which became the basis of the character.[15]

Taylor also claimed a sort of iconography for the cyclone: it was 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. It was also used by editorial cartoonists of the 1890s to represent political upheaval.[11]

Other putative allegorical devices of the book include the Wicked Witch of the West as a figure for the actual American West; if this is true, then the monkeys could represent another western danger: Native Americans. Baum even displayed an early sympathy for native Americans of the plains, symbolized in the story of the Winged monkeys in the West, whose leader tells Dorothy, "Once we were a free people, living happily in the great forest, flying from tree to tree, eating nuts and fruit and doing just as we pleased without calling anybody master. […] This was many years ago, long before Oz came out of the clouds to rule over this land."[10]

Other writers have used the same evidence to lead to precisely opposite allegorical interpretations.[7]

Apart from intentional symbolism, scholars have speculated on the sources of Baum's ideas and imagery. The "man behind the curtain" could be a reference to automated store window displays of the sort famous at Christmas season in big city department stores; many people watching the fancy clockwork motions of animals and mannequins thought there must be an operator behind the curtain pulling the levers to make them move. (Baum was the editor of the trade magazine read by window dressers.)[16]

Additional allegories have been developed, without claims that they were originally intended by Baum. The text has been treated as a theosophical allegory[17] In 1993 W. Geoffrey Seeley recast the story as an exercise in treachery, suggesting the supposed "Good Witch Glinda" used an innocent, ignorant patsy (Dorothy) to overthrow both her own sister witch (Witch of the West) and the Wizard of Oz, leaving herself as undisputed master of all four corners of Oz: North, East, West and (presumably Oz being) South. "She even showed her truest Machiavellian genius by allowing the story to be entitled after the weakest of her three opponents." Glenda could have told Dorothy that the "ruby slippers would easily do the job [of returning Dorothy to her beloved home] but decided that a destabilizing force such as Dorothy might be just the thing to shake up her other rival [The West Witch]."[18] Kassinger, in his book Gold: From Greek Myth to Computer Chips, purports that "The Wizard symbolizes bankers who support the gold standard and oppose adding silver to it...Only Dorothy's silver slippers can take her home to Kansas", meaning that by Dorothy not realizing that she had the silver slippers the whole time, Dorothy, or "the westerners", never realized they already had a viable currency of the people.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b Ritter, Gretchen (1997). "Silver slippers and a golden cap: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and historical memory in American politics". Journal of American Studies. 31 (2): 171–203. JSTOR 27556260. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b c Swartz, Mark Evan (2000). Oz Before the Rainbow: L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" on Stage and Screen to 1939. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0801864771. Cite error: The named reference "swartz2000" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ Olson, James (2001). Historical Dictionary of the Great Depression, 1929–1940. Greenwood. pp. 315–316. ISBN 0313306184.
  4. ^ Hearn, Michael Patrick (2000). The Annotated Wizard of Oz. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393049922.
  5. ^ Littlefield, Henry (1964). "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism". American Quarterly. 16 (1): 47–58. JSTOR 2710826. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  6. ^ Sanders, Mitch (1991). "Setting the Standards on the Road to Oz". The Numismatist. American Numismatic Association: 1042–1050. Retrieved 2011-10-28. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  7. ^ a b c Parker, David B. (1994). "The Rise and Fall of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a 'Parable on Populism'". Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians. 15: 49–63. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  8. ^ Gardner, Todd (2004). "Responses to Littlefield — The Wizard of Oz". Retrieved 2011-11-28.
  9. ^ Gjovaag, Eric (2006). "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Frequently Asked Questions: The Books". The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Website. Retrieved 2007-06-09.
  10. ^ a b Dighe, Ranjit S., ed. (2002). The historian's Wizard of Oz: reading L. Frank Baum's classic as a political and Monetary Allegory. ISBN 0-275-97418-9.
  11. ^ a b c d e Quentin P. Taylor (2004-12-02). "Money and Politics in the Land of Oz". The Independent Institute. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  12. ^ Hansen, Bradley A. (2002). "The Fable of the Allegory: The Wizard of Oz in Economics" (PDF). Journal of Economic Education. 33 (3). JSTOR 1183440. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  13. ^ Michael Patrick Hearn, The annotated Wizard of Oz: the wonderful Wizard of Oz (2000) p. 271
  14. ^ Leinwand, Gerald (2006). William Jennings Bryan: An Uncertain Trumpet. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 074255158X.
  15. ^ Geer, John G.; Rochon, Thomas R. (2004). "William Jennings Bryan on the Yellow Brick Road". The Journal of American Culture. 16 (4): 59–63. doi:10.1111/j.1542-734X.1993.00059.x.
  16. ^ Stuart Culver, "What Manikins Want: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Art of Decorating Dry Goods Windows and Interiors", Representations, 21 (1988) pp. 97–116.
  17. ^ Algeo, John. Oz and Kansas: A Theosophical Quest. Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Conference of the Children’s Literature Association, University of Missouri, Kansas City, May 16–18, 1986, ed. Susan R. Gannon and Ruth Anne Thompson, c. 1988, pp. 135–39.
  18. ^ W. Geoffrey Seeley. "The Geo-Politics of Oz: Now It Can Be Told! Treachery, Tin Men, Hegemony and Toto," Washington Post Dec 26, 1993
  19. ^ Ruth Kassinger Gold: From Greek Myth to Computer Chips

Bibliography

Further reading

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