Blog 3

On the surface, the Wizard of Oz is little more than a children's story. A little girl from Kansas is swept up in a cyclone with her little dog Toto and lands in the Land of Oz. A closer look however, tells the powerful metaphors and symbols pertaining to the politics of the period that drive the film forward. One of the most important factors of the movie is the poor migrant farmers of the south and the west, along with the manifestations of the farmer’s problems and solutions to these problems in the story.

As Dorothy, a good hearted, run-of-the-mill southern girl, follows the Yellow Brick road, she finds holes and broken-up sections of it. Being that the Yellow Brick road represents the gold standard, it can be interpreted that, the author wanted to point out the problems of the gold standard and how it affected the farmers. After all, the farmers had suffered through droughts, and watched as the prices of the foods that they produced fell in spite and probably because of over production. Banks, or witches, did nothing to make the farmer's situation, quite the opposite. They were ruthless, foreclosing farm after farm, and selling the newly gained land to railroads and massive farms that could ride out the recessions and more easily control prices.

Too make his point, Baum creates the Scarecrow, who represents the farmers. In the story, the Scarecrow doesn't have a brain, but still solves most of the group's problems. During the worst phases of the drought, farmers, pleading for help from the government and banks, found refuge only in themselves. They reasoned that since the prices of their goods were so low, all they need do to make up the extra income is produce more, and so they produced more. In fact, during the drought America saw one of its largest food-production increases in history. This is why Baum made the scarecrow without a brain.

The Wicked Witch of the East controlled the Munchkins, who Dorothy first had contact with in the Land of Oz. The witch met with bad accident when Dorothy's house landed on top of her crushing all except her feet. On them was Dorothy’s only hope at happiness, which would bring her home, the answer to all of her problems. The Silver/Red slippers! The Silver Slippers is a symbol for Free Silver. You see, in the years leading to the Free Silver Election, the farmers had been devastated by drought, robbed by the railroads, and kicked by the banks. Eventually, after growing tired of this, the farmers got back at them in the form of governmental programs.

The Wizard of Oz is filled with many more metaphors. For instance, in the title: "Wizard of Oz", Oz stands for ounce, referring to the gold standard. So the Wizard of ounce means the leader of the gold standard. The Quadlings, who only wear red, are a reference to the small communist movement in the south. The Tin man is the representation of industry who doesn't stop, and needs oil to survive. Emerald City represents cities in general and the Green Glasses that anyone in Emerald city must wear illustrates Baum's belief that the government allows a person to see only what government wants him to see.