Wizard of Oz The Wizard of Oz is a classic a universally loved film. It’s full of adventure, symbolism, and has a feel good story. It’s interesting though to see some parallels the Wizard of Oz had with other well-known classic fairytales. One example, is the famous story of Alice in Wonderland. A classic in its own right, and a staple in nearly everyone’s film repertoire. The similarities between these two stories are numerous. Starting with the main heroines themselves. Both Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, have a young girl as their main character. Even the character’s appearances and lines are similar. Both sporting a blue dress, and describing their fantasies as curious. When Dorothy arrives in Oz she says, “What a curious place”. …show more content…
These two films are not only similar on these surface levels, but also in their narrative structure and intent as well. Dorothy and Alice, both find themselves trapped in a world of their own fantasy, but with no context on how to navigate their way home. They are then lead by an array of strange characters who guide them on their journey. Dorothy meets the scarecrow, the tin man, the cowardly lion, and so on. While Alice crosses paths with the white rabbit, the cheshire cat, the mad hatter, and so on. With the assistance of their companions, both heroines maneuver their way through the challenges each fantasy presents. Perhaps the biggest similarity these films share narratively, is the underlying emphasis on empathy and perspective. Both …show more content…
According to Etherington-Wright and Doughty, “The signifier is the form that the sign takes. It can be a word. It can be a word. It can take the form of a specific sound or marks on a piece of paper (a combination of letters of letters or symbols). The signified is the conceptual stage of communication. This is when the sign stimulates a mental idea/image” (Doughty, p. 65). A signifier in Alice in Wonderland, is the world of Wonderland itself. The signified is her quest for knowledge. The signifier is her physical journey through wonderland, but signified is her search for understanding. Another example is the signifier of the white rabbit. The rabbit signifies a figment of her imagination. While the thing that is signified by the rabbit is her curious nature as whole. In the Wizard of Oz, a signifier is the ruby slippers. They symbolize magic, and what’s signified by them is Dorothy’s potential power. “She has it, she just doesn’t know how to use it yet, which is really why Glinda sends her off to see the Wizard. Only after all of her adventures, and the attendant self-reliance that comes with taking out two wicked witches single-handedly, can she tap into that power and use it to get what she want” (Shmoop). In the move Big Fish, the fish is another great example of signified and signifier. The signifier is the fish, representing Edward himself, while the signified is his life and
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 away from the meaning of L. Frank Baum’s depiction in his novel to a certain level and extent.
A symbol is a person, object, or event that suggests more than its literal meaning. Symbols can be very useful in shedding light on a story, clarifying meaning that can’t be expressed with words. It may be hard to notice symbols at first, but while reflecting on the story or reading it a second time, the symbol is like a key that fits perfectly into a lock. The reason that symbols work so well is that we can associate something with a particular object. For example, a red rose symbolizes love and passion, and if there were red roses in a story we may associate that part of the story with love. Although many symbols can have simple meanings, such as a red rose, many have more complex meanings and require a careful reading to figure out its meaning. The first symbol that I noticed in Ethan Frome is the setting. It plays an important role in this story. The author spends much of the first few chapters describing the scene in a New England town Starkfield. When I think of a town called Starkfield, a gloomy, barren place with nothing that can grow comes to mind. As the author continues to describe this town, it just reinforces what I had originally thought.
Symbolism is a major literary device that helps people see a book through symbols that often have a deeper meaning. A symbol is used to explain something in a different way, using images, objects, etc. instead of just saying it in words. As you search for a deeper meaning in a work of art or literature, it can help you understand the authors intentions and the deeper significance of a work. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, symbols help reinforce the major themes of the book. Fire and flames have been used as symbols by many authors.
A symbol is a unique term because it can represent almost anything such as people, beliefs, and values. Symbols are like masks that people put on to describe their true self. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the author uses Tom Robinson and Arthur Radley to represent a mockingbird which illustrates the theme of innocence by presenting these characters as two harmless citizens that do not pose a threat to Maycomb.
A symbol is a word or expression which signifies something other than the physical object to which it directly refers. The book “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee contains three recognizable symbols.
The Wizard of Oz, perhaps America’s favorite children’s story, is also an informed remark on the late 1800’s Populist Movement. The movie, starring Judy Garland, Bert Lahr, and Ray Bolgr, is based on L. Frank Baum’s novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The novel tells the story of a young girl named Dorothy and her dog, who are whisked away in her house by a twister, to the magical Land of Oz. Determined to find a way back home, Dorothy travels along the Yellow Brick Road toward the Emerald City to meet the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Along the way, Dorothy meets a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion. Additionally, she encounters with Glenda the Good Witch, the munchkins, and The Wicked Witch of the West, and her flying monkeys. This
Things that are similar about the two novels and how both of their dreams were crushed are both are groups of people who have these dreams and each finds or meets something that can help their dreams come true, the pearl and Candy. Furthermore, the realization of their dreams coming to an end is, in both books, caused by the death of someone who is a part of the dream, Coyotito and Lennie.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story about a little girl who comes into contact with unpredictable, illogical, basically mad world of Wonderland by following the White Rabbit into a huge rabbit – hole. Everything she experiences there challenges her perception and questions common sense. This extraordinary world is inhabited with peculiar, mystical and anthropomorphic creatures that constantly assault Alice which makes her to question her fundamental beliefs and suffer an identity crisis. Nevertheless, as she woke up from “such a curious dream” she could not help but think “as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been ”.
A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different concepts and experiences. All communication is achieved through the use of symbols. Symbols take the form of words, sounds, gestures, ideas or visual images and are used to convey other ideas and beliefs. A symbol is an energy evoking, and directing, agent. Symbolism that is something that stands for another, it can be place, object, or a person. Human cultures use symbols to express specific ideologies and social structures and to represent
allow us to open that can of worms her. For our purposes I shall use a
the book and novel and was both given to her differently. The special glasses on the
The symbols aren’t just inanimate objects but characters also. For example; Piggy an overweight asthmatic kid who cannot see without his glasses, represents mental strength and physical weakness. With his keen mental strength Piggy tries to enforce a governmental system. “What’s better--- To have rules and agreeing or to hunt and kill?” (164) Piggy tries one last time to knock some sense into the unruly boy’s right before Roger murders him. Piggy is a rational boy who tries to think about the way that adults would handle this situation. Piggy is the outsider of the group, and many o...
In “The Wizard Of Oz”, Dorothy is a meek teenager while in “The Wiz” Dorothy was a 24 year old school teacher. Both scarecrows are quite smart despite not having a brain, but the Scarecrow portrayed in “The Wiz” is much more timid than the original. The Tinmen that are shown are probably the most different as far as characters go. In the original film, the Tinman is all silver. They find him in the woods where he had been there for almost an entire year because he rusted. The Tinman in “The Wiz”, however, is quite different. He appears to be a bunch of random parts put together and is not silver at all. For the most part, their personalities are the same except the Tinman in “The Wiz” cries an alarming amount of tears. Both cowardly lions have the same personality, as in “believe they’re cowards but are actually the bravest of the four.” They both also used the be kings, but when found the lion in the “Wizard Of Oz” is found in a forest while in “The Wiz” the lion was a statue in front of a library. The last comparison are the two wizards. Both wizards first appeared as a giant floating head, but the discoveries of them were different. I personally feel like the discovery in the original film was more realistic. The group discovered him after Toto pulls back the curtain. In “The Wiz”, he is discovered sleeping in his bed. Dorothy begins to yell at him, but they do not
learn what a symbol is. A symbol cannot be seen as a sign. The two are very different from the previous. A sign is an object which signifies something else. For example, a green traffic light instructs drivers to proceed.
A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. (2009 Open-Ended Question for AP English Literature and Composition).