Socio-Political Symbolism In “The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz”

5 Pages 1196 Words

Socio-Political Symbolism in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”



By
Heather R. Posey


The Wizard of Oz has long been considered an imaginative children’s tale of fantasy, but many have read into it a symbolism which goes beyond a simple fun and exciting story filled with witches, wizards, and other fairy tale creatures. The possibility of a greater depth to the work was opened to the public eye in 1964 when Henry M. Littlefield’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Parable on Populism” was published in the American Quarterly. Wrought by Lyman Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was first published in 1900. The work is an adept reflection of the political and socio-economic setting in turn-of-the-century America.

Written at a time when things such as droughts, a harsh winter, grasshoppers and economical factors were devastating Western farmers, industrial workers were oppressed, a time of debating over monetary security in either silver of gold, a time of disillusionment for the common man of America, when Romantic idealism was in a hopeless decline, The Wizard of Oz begins set on a monochromatic and desolate farmhouse of the great prairies of Kansas. Dorothy dwells in a hopeless environment surrounded by hopeless people. Kansas and its’ people represent the distressed and neglected farming communities and the hopeless common man of turn-of-the-century America. It is suggested that Dorothy, who bravely and strongly lead her traveling companions through their trials to the Emerald City and ultimately to the discovery that they already possessed the things they sought, represents Mary Lease, Kansas firebrand quoted as suggesting that farmers raise less corn and more hell. It has been said as well that Dorothy’s little black dog, Toto, represents the prohibitionist teetotalers, who were a part of the populist silverite movement. The two heroes are suddenly wrenched from their dry but familiar surroundings by a tor...