The Simplified Wizard of Oz
Hunter Hannula
Dr. Jason Friedman
Modern U.S. History
10/16/14
Written during the meteoric rise of the populist movement, L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was more than just an entertaining story for children. Full of multifaceted characters and symbolism, much of the book can be interpreted as an allegory for the political events at the time. About 40 years after the publication of the book, a movie version was created, however it contained many disparities from the original text. The movie form of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz washed away nearly all of Baum’s intended allegory by leaving out large amounts of character traits, violence, and tangibility from the original text. …show more content…
Oz can be viewed as an allegory for the U.S. government because he talks about all the miracles he performs but never actually delivers on any and tries to avoid anyone knowing of his true ineptitude, “don’t speak so loud, or you will be overheard—and I should be ruined, I’m supposed to be a Great Wizard” The simplicity and ease with which Oz solves the problems of the characters both provides humor and reveals the populists general opinion on the actions of the government; even though they can’t perform miracles as they say they can, it is still incredibly simple for them to fix the issues at
Hunter Hannula
Dr. Jason Friedman
Modern U.S. History
10/16/14
Written during the meteoric rise of the populist movement, L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was more than just an entertaining story for children. Full of multifaceted characters and symbolism, much of the book can be interpreted as an allegory for the political events at the time. About 40 years after the publication of the book, a movie version was created, however it contained many disparities from the original text. The movie form of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz washed away nearly all of Baum’s intended allegory by leaving out large amounts of character traits, violence, and tangibility from the original text. …show more content…
Oz can be viewed as an allegory for the U.S. government because he talks about all the miracles he performs but never actually delivers on any and tries to avoid anyone knowing of his true ineptitude, “don’t speak so loud, or you will be overheard—and I should be ruined, I’m supposed to be a Great Wizard” The simplicity and ease with which Oz solves the problems of the characters both provides humor and reveals the populists general opinion on the actions of the government; even though they can’t perform miracles as they say they can, it is still incredibly simple for them to fix the issues at