I’m co-hosting, with my friend Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle, a re-reading of all 14 Oz books, in the order written by L. Frank Baum. I’ve read all these books multiple times, but never back to back and I always discover something new. This month was a perfect time to reread the book that started it all, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Entering the Enchanted Castle has posted a fantastic analysis of the book, and I’ll be reviewing the second book, The Marvelous Land of Oz, next month.
Published in 1900, Baum was already a children’s writer, after having struggled with many other careers before that. He explains in the opening letter of the book (and I love that each book has an opening letter) that the Wizard of Oz is meant to be a new kind of fairy tale, full of magic and wonder without the terror and lesson-telling of classic fairy tales. No one dances until they die in this book (Cinderella) or turns into sea foam (The Little Mermaid), and there’s no happy ever after with a fairy tale prince, either. The Wizard of Oz is considered a uniquely American tale, as it celebrates exploration and adventure.
There is darkness in the book as well, though. Baum will later scale back on violence in his books (most of his creatures can’t be harmed) but in this book it’s entirely possible to sleep in the poppy field until one dies, or to chop off all of one’s limbs, or to be enslaved by a wicked witch. At one point the Tin Woodman beheads 40 wolves with his axe, though in later books he will be unwilling even to harm an insect.
When I was a child, what I loved most about the Oz books were all of the courageous, strong girls and women. Most books aimed at girls were very realistic and portrayed girls and women doing traditional types of things. Very few showed girls and women who had adventures in fantastic lands, fighting battles and going on quests like Dorothy does in Oz. And in fact, while her friends protect her in the book, she protects them just as much. While the Scarecrow is wise, the Tin Man kind-hearted, and the Lion courageous, Dorothy combines all of these traits. And Dorothy isn’t an anomaly, as women are the strongest characters in the book, whether they are wicked or good. This theme continues throughout the series, as you’ll see.
As an adult, I was thrilled to learn more about Baum’s beliefs and where they came from. Baum believed that women are powerful, and his witches exemplify the notion that magic isn’t inherently bad or good, but depends on the person using it. He was heavily influenced by his educated wife and her mother, Matilda Gage, who was an intellectual, a political radical, and a feminist. Gage published a book in 1893 on women’s oppression by Christianity, in which she discusses the persecution of women as witches, and it was Gage who encouraged Baum to write children’s stories. Baum’s stories feature strong, wise, magical women, although he has plenty of characters (male and female) who are wicked and foolish. The Wizard, for example, is a humbug who controls the people of Oz through fear. He hides in the Emerald City because, he explains to Dorothy, “while I had no magical powers at all I soon found out that the witches were really able to do wonderful things.”
I also loved Baum’s love of wordplay (the Wizard puts needles in his head at the end so he becomes “sharp”) and the many different villages that make up Oz, like the living trees, the field mice, the China Country and the Hammerheads. Throughout his books, Baum wrestles with concept of governance versus independence, whether Oz and it’s five counties are one country or an amalgamation of many smaller cultures. Ultimately, it’s both. Like the U.S. today, Oz is simply too big to be entirely governable, and many adventures arise throughout the series due to people rebelling or simply not being aware of the rules.
While re-reading I also watched the second half of the movie, and I always find it interesting to contrast the movie and the book. In a lot of ways, the movie is very faithful to the book, and even includes quite a bit of dialogue, like “I’m a very good man, I’m just a very bad wizard.” In fact much of the Wizard’s conversation is similar to the book, as he tries to talk the characters out of needing upgrades, and then works to convince them he’s given something they didn’t actually have all along. While the movie loses many of the smaller adventures, it’s understandable that in 1939 it might not have been feasible to recreate the China People or the Hammerheads, and they weren’t essential to the story.
The movie does a few things that have always bothered me. At the end of the movie, Glinda reappears to the travelers and tells Dorothy she had the power to go home all along. When asked “why didn’t you tell us in the first place?” her answer is that Dorothy wouldn’t have believed her, and she had to learn it for herself. It’s especially cringe-worthy because Baum was not about forcing lessons down children’s throats. Worse, Dorothy’s “lesson” is to never look for adventure again beyond her own front yard, which was certainly not Baum’s intent. Indeed, in the later books, Dorothy travels often and her life is full of adventure. And then of course, the movie turning the whole adventure into a dream is certainly not what Baum would have intended. Instead of being lauded for her courage and resilience, she’s put to bed and laughed at.
The Wicked Witch is much scarier than the one in the book, and in the book Dorothy is in danger only of being imprisoned by the witch. There’s nothing like that horrible crystal ball and hourglass, scenes that still make my hair stand on end. Interestingly, poor Margaret Hamilton so defined what we would come to see as wicked witchiness, she was never able to act in another role, and children were terrified of her for most of her life. The black robe, green face and broomstick were not iconic images of witchcraft prior to the movie.
I hope you’ll join us as we journey through Oz, whether you’ve read the books before or not. There are literally adventures around every corner. I hope that by the time we’re done, the characters of Oz will feel like friends you’ve known for a long time.
