THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ: ITS CHARACTERS AND THEMES
February 12, 1993: Revised for the dramatic arts students at V.T. BY

T.R. Young, Official Socialist Historian of the Wizard of Oz

1.  Dorothy represents a quest for community.  She personifies those who are still young enough to hope and to
     act.  Dorothy is Dorothy Everybody...even you.  On the other hand, alienated social life is symbolized
     by
2.  Aunt Em and Uncle Henry:  hard times had taken the sparkle from their eyes and the color from their life. 
     They lived in a in a grey house in a grey land; and they were sober grey.  They did not smile. 
     Alienation is also symbolized by
3.  Kansas and the farm on which Uncle Henry and Aunt Em lived; the farm represented the economic conditions of
     the country after the depressions of 1873 and 1893.  A great grey plain without trees, flowers, or
     water, it was hardbaked by the pitiless sun.
4.  Toto was the one bright spot in Dorothy's life.  Toto represents the clown/jokester in history who unmasks
     pretense and deception.  Baum is Toto and so is everyone who laughs at a Kings or Tyrants.  In our
     time, it is the people from East Germany who laughed and danced on the Berlin wall this past November
     [1989]; it is the artists who make political cartoons.  Toto can be anybody; even you.
5.  The Cyclone represents the power of the people to overturn alienating social conditions.  It is comprised
     of the North, East, West and South winds in the story.  When people from Wyoming, California, Texas
     and New York come together, they can better work for change and renewal.
6.  Oz is Utopia.  With bright colors, happy people and a brook which bubbled nearby, Oz is the possibility of
     a good and decent society.  But things weren't always good in Oz...until the house crushed one of
     them, there were two evil witches who oppressed the people.
7.  The Wicked Witch from the East represented finance capital which keep the country on a gold standard with
     high interest rates while the Wicked Witch from the West represented railroad barons who exploited the
     farmers of the Midwest.  The farmers had to pay high interest rates, high prices for manufactured
     goods and high prices to ship their beef and grain to Eastern markets by rail as a result of
     monopolies.
8.  The Munchkins: there were four regions of Oz in the original story.  Dorothy came down in the Land of the
     Munchkins.  They once were full-sized people but were made small by the working conditions imposed
     upon them by the Wicked Witches.  The Munchkins were very happy that Dorothy killed the Eastern Witch. 
     They wanted her to stay and be their Queen but Dorothy wanted to go home to Uncle Henry and Aunt Em so
     she decided to be 'Off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
9.  She was helped by the good Witch from the North (Jocasta) who symbolized abstract good.  She gave Dorothy
     the kiss of Goodness which protected her from the many dangers on..
.10.  The Yellow Brick Road.  The gold bricks of the road stood for the gold bricks of the Eastern Bankers who
     insisted upon the gold standard, itself a symbol of the tight money policy which was ruining farmers
     and small businesses.  You may have heard of the famous speech by Wm. Jennings Bryan who said that
     America was being crucified on a Cross of Gold.  Vachel Lindsay wrote a poem about it.  
11.  The Silver Slippers (not ruby) embodied the people's demand for social justice.  In the book, whoever wore
     the silver slippers was safe when walking on the Yellow Brick Road...that is why the Wicked Witch from
     the West demanded Dorothy give them to her.  The populist politics of the time demanded low interest
     rates, good wages and fair prices for farm products as against the high interest rates and high prices
     of the 'great malefactors of wealth' who organized the monopolies and cartels.
12.  The Strawman was a takeoff on the farmers who didn't have enough brains to vote for Wm Jennings Bryan.  
     The Strawman embodies the quest for good theory and good understanding.  We all would be better off if
     we only had a brain.  You may recall that the Strawman was first seen hung on a cross in the
     cornfield.  Again there is that crucifixion theme.  
13.  The Tinman embodies a quest for things of the heart; he was in love with a girl but he worked for the
     Wicked Witch from the East.  She made him work so fast that he cut off first an arm, then a leg, then
     split himself down the middle with his ax.  After each accident, a tinsmith repaired him but after it
     was all over, the Tinman didn't have a heart.  He wanted a heart so he could, once again, love his
     sweetheart.  His is a search for the authentic sexuality of sharing and giving love.  Christians call
     this kind of love, compassion, caritas and agape.  Each religion has their own name.
14.  The cowardly Lion was a putdown of Wm. Jennings Bryan who was too cowardly to enter the race for President
     after being defeated the first time he ran.  Bryan raved and roared but he was too cowardly to attack
     the big tycoons of industry and finance again.  But in the book, the Lion drew courage from his
     friends and protected them from the giant Kalidahs...two fearsome beasts not used in the movie.  See
     the poem below by Vachel Lindsay who wanted Bryan to win.
15.  The Wizard of Oz symbolized alienated politics.  People assign their power to politicians then go back to
     them, hat in hand asking for help.  The Wiz was the kind of politician who don't want to see the
     people since he can't give them what they don't have in the first place or what they already have. 
     His real name was Oscar Z. Phadrig Isaac Norman Hinkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs.
16.  Washington D.C. inspired the Emerald City concept.  It was green because green is the color of money and
     in Washington, money is the name of the game.  Washington represents any false solution to any social
     problem.  It takes more than money to solve problems; it takes heart, brains, courage and community
     aka compassion, agape and caritas.
17.  The flying monkeys represented the newly freed slaves.  Baum lived in the aftermath of the Civil War. 
     Whoever had the golden cap could make the monkeys do anything they wanted.  Dorothy used the third
     wish she had to get them to fly her and her three companions back to the Emerald City after she killed
     the wicked witch from the West.  Then she freed the monkeys (slaves).  MGM was having labor troubles
     in the 30's so Samuel Goldwyn turned the monkeys into villainous Cossacks.  Goldwyn also ordered the
     song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow to be cut from the movie; he thought it to radical; the director and
     actors insisted he keep it.  (yeaaa!!)
18.  The Golden Cap represents learning and understanding.  Both can be used to hurt people or to help them. 
     What do you think?  Would you use what you know about workers, customers, or voters to deceive and
     swindle them?  Naaah.
19.  The Poppy field was used to represent anything that put people to sleep...that immobilized them.  Drugs,
     Monday Night Football, HBO, whatever turns people into couch potatoes.  Are you a couch potato or
     would you rather learn all the days of your life so you can help Dorothy and her friends go over the
     Rainbow and make a dream come true?
20.  The Morality Play itself:  the whole movie tells us that, with BRAINS, COURAGE, LOVE AND COMMUNITY, we can
     create a very nice society.  It is this four-cornered morality which makes the movie so popular with
     so many people for so many years.

     There is a lot more to the book that didn't make Hollywood;  the Hammerheads who were rooted in one
spot and knocked down anyone who tried to go beyond them; the China people who were broken by vandals; the
Octospider which devoured all creatures it reached; the wildcat who chased the Queen of the mice who rescued
Dorothy and her friends from the Poppy field; the trees that grabbed and caught at all who passed by them
represented the various branches of science used against the people.  Lots of good stuff left to make another
movie.
     The most important part of the book was destroyed by Goldwyn and his writers.  When you read the book,
you see that the Strawman learns to think when his friends have problems, the Tinman learns compassion when he
finds he has crushed ants on the yellow brick road and the Lion finds enough courage to save the foursome and
Toto from the giant Kalidahs which pursue them.  We can't get love, brains or courage from a bottle or from a
Wizard; we can only get them by doing them.
     This story ends when Dorothy demands that the Wizard give the people what he promised them.  So he
gave the Strawman a 'bran'-new brain complete with pins and needles so he would be sharp.  He gave the Tinman a
heart shaped watch which was guaranteed to go on ticking.  He pulled out a bottle of green liquid and gave the
Lion a big drink...as the Wizard said, lots of people get courage from a bottle.  (There are a lot of horrible
puns in the book).  But he could not help Dorothy get back home...later the Good Witch from the South told her
that she always had the power to go home; she was wearing the silver slippers.  Dorothy did go home.  She found
Uncle Henry and Aunt Em smiling; there was pink in their cheeks and red in their lips.  The house was newly
painted; the grass, fields and trees were green and once again the promise of Spring was fulfilled.  The Tinman
and the Strawman stayed to help govern the other lands of Oz.
     However, the story never really ends; it begins anew when you too exhibit brains, courage, compassion
and community.  History begins anew with each generation.   In the USA, in the Eastern Communist Bloc, in the
poor barrios and small farms in Latin America, in the wonderful savannas and shambas of Africa, in the lovely
cities and quiet villages of Asia, the same four virtues, wrapped in policies of social justice, move us toward
our full humanity.  In as much as each of you now present are moving toward the fullness of your morality, I
hereby grant you, on behalf of the Wizard of Oz and as the Official Socialist Historian of the Great and Mighty
Land of Oz, the right and obligation to work all the days of your life for social justice.  You can begin by
working toward better gender relations; toward the end of racism; toward economic dignity and social democracy
and toward a sense of community that embraces all creatures bright and beautiful on this good earth.  When you
do this, you are living the best of your religion at the edge of history.  What better journey can you take
through the pages of your life????

***************

L. Frank Baum, who wrote the Wizard of Oz, was born in New York right after the Civil War, studied journalism
briefly at Columbia University; married Maud Humphery, the daughter of a feminist; moved to South Dakota to
publish a paper; went bankrupt; had his assets seized by the sheriff; took his family to Chicago in time for
the Haymarket Massacre; developed the story by telling it to his four children and their friends and then
published it in time for Christmas, 1899.   It was turned down by several publishers.  He wrote 15 more in the
series and, when he died, his publisher hired someone to keep writing the series...I don't recall the name but
it was a woman.   The stories became less and less radical as Baum got richer and richer.  All this is of
little interest except that both Lindsay, Baum and Bryan were interested in social justice as is every human
being who thinks beyond the moment.