Although The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written over 100 years ago and then adapted 40 years later into the silver screen. L. Frank Baum, the author, stated he wrote the book for children’s pleasure, but many have found parallels between Dorothy 's yellow brick journey and politics of the Gilded Age, the era that was sparkly on the outside but corrupt underneath.
Dorothy: The protagonist of the story, represents an individualized belief of the American people. She expresses her longing for go to a place with no trouble, tells people what is on her mind, and that she wants to see other lands. For example, during the movie she sings about going over the rainbow and telling the lady off when she wanted to take away Toto. Throughout the
…show more content…
The road symbolizes the gold standard during the age that the United States had a money issue in the 1890s. It was to put our money into units of gold and have gold back up the money that the US has. Bryan called out the gold standard issue saying it’s a failure in his “Cross of Gold” speech.
Scarecrow: One out of the four travelers was the scarecrow. He has no brain and complains about it and ends up on the journey to the Emerald City to ask Oz for a brain. The scarecrow symbolizes the midwestern farmers. During the bad weather in Kansas one of the phases was a drought, farmers, begged for help form the government and banks, but ended up helpless. They had low prices on goods so their idea was to fix the difference by producing more goods. They thought they had a solution to their problem but failed so Baum created the brainless scarecrow.
Tin Man: Industrialized workers during the Gilded Age were dehumanized. They were forced to work 10-18 hours a day, 6 days a week. There were many deaths, injuries, no safety rules, or regulations. Tin Man was dehumanized because nailed down and rusted like they way workers felt when factories went out of business because of the national depression. Just like the workers felt helpless so did Tin Man who was given no
…show more content…
The plains indians attacked the midwest similar to how the monkeys followed the witch of the west. Similar to when the Witch of the West told the monkeys in the forest to attack Dorothy and bring her to the castle.
Emerald City: They escape from the winged monkeys,the Wicked Witch of the East’s castle, at the end of the yellow brick road, are finally reach Emerald City. Washington DC is equivalent to Emerald City because they are both the political centers. People in the city were mostly in green the color of money and they were all dressed up lavishly. A lot of them were supporters of big business.
The Wizard of Oz: President Cleveland is similar to the Wizard of Oz because they were both pulling strings behind a curtain tricking people. Pres. Cleveland was hated for taking away the Sherman Silver Purchase. Then the Wizard of Oz was tricking people thinking that he was great and powerful but in the end when he got caught he wasn 't great or powerful at
L. Frank Baum achieved a fairy tale classic in his work of The Wizard of Oz. In the story, colors are used repeatedly to directly or indirectly give feeling and meaning to the setting.Color is a crucial imagery factor in a piece of writing. It lets a reader connect and use their imagination to make the words come alive in their heads. Baum specifically uses the colors; gray, yellow, and green. The novel is filled with many mood changes using these colors.
Frank Baums, The Wizard of Oz is arguably one of the most popular films made. Even though it was released in 1939, nearly three-quarters of a century ago, the film continues to entertain audiences and speak to them in a personal way. The question that comes to the mind when analyzing this film is: What is it about this film that gives it such timelessness? When reflecting on the film’s timeless qualities, it seems clear the plot is one of the things that enable it to maintain its relevance. Primarily, the plot of The Wizard of Oz is timeless because it is such an excellent example of the heroic journey, both in literally and cinematically. This journey of self-awareness is a metaphor for growth, which is something we all search to discover at some time in our lives.
In relation to occult symbolism, the above quotes have illustrated these features. Toto, the inner voice, led Dorothy along her trek . Glinda, the guide, gave Dorothy the resources to lead her in the direction to what she ultimately desires, a way to return to Kansas. Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion searched for a want or need, while supporting Dorothy. In whole, each of these characters displayed good behavior in assisting the young girl in her exploration to illumination and enlightenment. “Like Dorothy’s journey, ours lead to a better self-understanding and, hopefully, to wisdom. But what does “wisdom” mean? I suspect it consists precisely in having discovered the brightness, the enchantment inside everything we have encountered all our lives.”
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is more than just a mediated artifact it is breakthrough, said to be one of the most famous films ever made. The film was not a box office success, it only received 3,017,000 on a 2,777,000 dollars budget but it still receive a large amount of positive reviews and remakes (). This is important in terms of the audience it reaches because it was not just a children’s movie, or an adult movie, or a movie for teens, it was a movie for the entire family that targeted no specific audience. The Wizard of Oz has won critical acclaim by being nominated for multiple academy awards such as best picture, best original song and is often ranked one of the top ten movies of all time (). The creator Frank L. Baum is very much significant because this was not his first ball game. He was originally an author of children’s books but wrote many novels, sequels and made many attempts to bring his work to stage and screen (). He had a vision like no other and saw things in a different pe...
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.
...s. The Scarecrow represents farmers, agricultural workers, ignorant of many city things but honest and able to understand things with a little education. The Tin Man, He represents the industrial worker whose heart has been torn out by the evils of factory work and industrialism. W.J. Bryan embodied the role of the cowardly lion. Bryan was a very loud and booming public speaker but was viewed as a coward because he did not support the Spanish-American war. OZ is the US. The emerald city is Washington D.C. filled with greenbacks and the wizard is the president. Dorothy and her “party” follow the yellow brick way, or gold standard, to find the wizard and fix her problem. When all along they way to fix her problem of how to get back home was to tap her ruby red shoes which were silver thus in the original book thus representing the Populists push for a silver standard.
The Wizard of Oz is the 1939 film musical released by the studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that became a cultural icon defining family entertainment for decades after its initial release. Though it did not turn a profit until 1956 when it aired on television, it has been considered a wide success, spawning several re-releases and sequels. The Wizard of Oz set the precedent for visual effects, innovations Hollywood still utilizes today in an age of computer generated images. The film has stood the test of time with its special effects, paving the way for the future of movie magic.
In her travels Dorothy meets the green people of Emerald city, the yellow winkies, and the blue munchkins. Each of the three different types of people reacted to Dorothy and her people differently, the munchkins were warm and welcoming, the people of Emerald city were cautious and courteous and the yellow winkies were curious and helpful. The distinction in color was made because each color represented a defining characteristic, the people of Emerald city represented greed as they were not only green, the color of money, but they were also heavily isolated from the rest of the people of Oz; the people of Emerald city lived in the richest city as seen with the jewels that surrounded the houses as such they did not openly welcome strangers nor did they treat them kindly a sign of disdain for outsiders, they represented the higher class in society, or the richest class. The yellow winkies represented hard workers, and the working to lower class as they were not only very skilled at every craft but their enslavement to the much more powerful which represented the constant oppression of the less powerful, or poorer class in society. The blue munchkins represented the middle class, not necessarily know for wealth or for being poor, they are kind and strive to be successful as seen with Boq one of the richest munchkins. Each of the different people of Oz and
Sometimes, the hardest parts of life can make one a better person in the long run, it just takes time. In the novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, Dorothy learns the importance of being independent and brave. By going on the journey to Oz, she runs into many challenges throughout the novel that help her grow into a hero at the end of the novel. In the story, Dorothy lives a normal life, but then there was a twister that hit her house and flew her away into a different land. This land was called, munchkin land. Here, Dorothy was welcomed, then she tells the princess she wants to go home and the princess tells her the only way to get home was to follow the yellow brick road to Oz. So she follows the road and runs into many obstacles, but in the end, Dorothy ends up talking to Oz and getting home safely. Dorothy grows into a hero because she had to face her fear of defeating the witch and makes it back home, while also helping out the scarecrow, tiger, and the tin man and she has to learn how it is important to be independent.
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”.
The idea of Manifest Destiny was fresh in the minds of many Americans and politicians, and they wanted the United States to continue its expansion westward. In the early days of the trail, only daring and courageous traders crossed the Great Plains to Santa Fe, and their Native American encounters remained fairly peaceful, but after several years of use, large shipping businesses started to set up trading operations along the trail. This meant an even larger amount of newcomers to New Mexico and the surrounding lands. For many Native Americans living beside the trail, the added amount of newcomers was seen as a threat to their very livelihoods. As traders crossed the Native Americans’ lands, they often hunted and killed bison and other game that the Indians depended on for their food source. Later, as traders started buying large amounts of mules and other draught animals and transporting them back east to the United States, many Indians attacked the wagon parties and stole their goods and animals. Sometimes, the Indians would even kill members of the wagon party in their surprise attacks. In retaliation, some traders killed presumably innocent Native Americans that they encountered. With tensions still rising, military troops started the escort wagons crossing
The first major connection in The Wizard of Oz was the Scarecrow. The scarecrow was used to symbolize the farmers and their struggles in America in the 18th century (Foner, Eric 636-640). The scarecrow made of straw was vulnerable with no brain. The scarecrow had little control over the circumstances he was facing just as the farmers did in the 18th century. The western farmers had issues with overproduction and when prices fell farmers suffered ended up losing their farms (Foner, Eric
Dorothy Gale, the protagonist of the story is a young, optimistic girl who lives on a farm in Kansas, which is a place in Midwest America that lacks colour and mainly consists of flat country land and has minimal trees. The films overall theme is illustrated by Dorothy’s famous line that ultimately
Set in the middle of Kansas, the viewer gets a sense of boredom and bareness. It seems as if the only people in that whole state are Dorothy, her immediate family and the farmhands! However, after her house gets lifted up and redeposited, she opens the door to a world of Technicolor. Your eyes are shocked as the screen is filled with bright colors. The colors of Munchkin Land symbolize a vibrant, surreal, dreamlike adventure.
The Wizard of Oz is a fiction story written by L. Frank Baum. The story has two main settings. The first setting is, Dorothy’s home, the Kansas prairies. The prairies are described as dry and gray. The second setting is the land of Oz. Oz is opposed from Kansas, it is colorful, bright, and full of joy. The Wizard of Oz has a grate theme or message behind the story. The message is that we all have good qualities in us, but it is up to us to use them.