THE WIZARD OF OZ A Lecture presented by T. R. Young Prepared for the Students by T. R. Young, Official at Texas Woman's University Socialist Historian of March, 1993 The Land of Oz OZ AT EASTER TIME Each March around Easter Time, the Wizard of Oz is shown on CBS. Most people in the USA have seen the Hollywood version 5 or more times...it has an enduring appeal. That appeal grows from the populist politics which inspired its author, L. Frank Baum, at the turn of the Century and from the four-cornered morality that is embodied in each its main figures: Dorothy, the Tinman, the Strawman and the not so cowardly Lion. Although MGM changed a lot from the original story, still the story has lessons from which we can profit. The Wizard is an Easter story which embodies the theme of change and renewal. It teaches a lesson of which we never tire: that with love, intelligence, courage and a sense of community, people could, somewhere over the Rainbow, build quite a nice society. The Wizard of Oz is a child's history of the quest for Utopia. Easter is the season of change and renewal. Down through the long white centuries of Winter people have met the new Spring with hope and energy. It is time, once again, to waken to the hope of a good and decent society. 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. There were four regions of Oz in the original story. See Map. 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 and wanted her to stay and be their Queen but Dorothy wanted to go home to Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. 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 low interest rates in particular and, more generally, 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. The Wicked Witch from the West wanted low wages and high prices and the silver slippers! 12. The Strawman was a takeoff on the farmers who didn't have enough brains to vote for Wm. Jennings Bryan in 1892. The Strawman embodies the quest for good theory and good understanding by farmers and workers alike. 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 the crucifixion theme. 13. The Tinman embodies a quest for things of the heart; he was in love with a girl but the Wicked Witch from the East had him under a spell. 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 for that which sanctifies each of us to others...even those whom we don't know. 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. Do you know any humbug of a politician who promises to give people that which first they must give him??? If not, listen to Rush Limbaugh...he'll dazzle you with his outrageous sense of humor and home truths about politicians. 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 Wizard 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. What is your real name?? 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? 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???? ******************** Cross of Gold Then we stood where we could see every band, and the speaker's stand. And Bryan took the platform. And he was introduced. And he lifted his hand and cast a new spell. Progressive silence fell in Springfield, in Illinois, around the world. Then we heard these glacial boulders across the prairie rolled; 'The people have a right to make their own mistakes... You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of Gold.' Election night at midnight: Boy Bryan's defeat. Defeat of silver, Defeat of the wheat. Victory of letterfiles and plutocrats in with greasy smiles with dollar signs upon their coats diamond watchchains on their vests and spats on their feet. Victory of custodians of Plymouth Rock, and all that inbred landlord stock. Victory of the neat. Defeat of the aspen groves of Colorado valleys, the blue bells of the Rockies, and blue bonnets of old Texas, by the Pittsburgh alleys. ...Vachel Lindsay 1920 The Lion in the Wizard of Oz represented William Jennings Bryan, who when he lost the campaign for president of which Vachel Lindsay speaks, refused (at first) to run a second time for fear of losing (ran four times and lost every one!!). L. Frank Baum, who wrote the Wizard of Oz, thought him to be a cowardly lion who would rave and roar at tiny creatures (like Toto) but was afraid of fighting the huge Kalidahs (read plutocrats) because they beat him up once before. 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.