The Wizard of Oz: The Wizard of Oz: A Parable About the

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The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz

• A Parable About the Populist Party

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L. Frank Baum

• A member of the PEOPLES Party.

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Dorothy

• Dorothy is Baums Miss Everyman. She represents
  the American people at their best Independent,
  resourceful, kindhearted, honest. She is the
  all-American girl from the heartland.
• Mary Lease, a farmer and head of the National
  Farmers Alliance.
• Lease was from Kansas, a Populist Party
  stronghold.

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Toto

• Temperance and Prohibition Party
• Teetotalers-Pledge to drink tea rather than
  alcohol.
• Important allies of the Populists in the Free
  Silver Coalition.

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Miss Gulch

• Banks/Farmers Mortgages.
• Miss Gulch threatens to take away Dorothys
  family farm.

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Cyclone Populism

• Populist Party came in like a tornado and lifted
  the farmers out of their mindset (Paradigms).

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Munchkinland A foreign, new world for Dorothy

• Toto, I have a feeling were not in Kansas
  anymore
• World of the East Coast Banking,
  industrial/commercial and political
• establishments.

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The Good Witches from the North and the South

• Northern Southern Farmers Alliances
• (The Farmers Alliances created the Populist
  Party)
• Political power is like witchcraft
• -some use the power for good, some for evil
  purposes.

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Death of the Wicked Witch of the East

• The Wicked Witch of the East represents
• the Eastern banking/industrial establishment.
• -The Witch dies when when a farmhouse falls on
  herironically, she is killed by the the very
  thing the banks take away from from farmers when
  they cannot pay their bills.
• -With President Cleveland (the Great
  Obstructionist) dead, there was a chance for the
  silver standard.

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Munchkins

• Little people enslaved by the Wicked Witch of
  the East, who takes regular people and makes them
  small. Dorothy freed them from the Wicked Witch
  of the East.
• Muchkins also represent child labor.
• The Lollipop Guild

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Yellow Brick Road

• The Gold Standard.
• The Populists believed that the gold standard,
  like the yellow brick road, had many pitfalls for
  ordinary people.

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Silver

• Bimetalism Easing the money supply and giving
  Americans greater access to credit.
• Salvation for farmers. Bryan used the imagery in
  his famous Cross of Gold speech.
• Dorothy does not understand the power of her
  silver shoes so she heads down the treacherous
  yellow brick road (Silver and gold)

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OZ

• Bimetalism- 161 ounces (oz.)
• 16 oz. of silver would 1 oz. of gold

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Scarecrow

• Shows the stupidity of farmers who were once
  enlightened, shrewd, and capable but, now stood
  powerless in the face of industrialization.
• Prejudicial notion that farmers were not smart
  enough to recognize their own interests and felt
  too intimidated to enter the realm of politics.
• Not respected, not even by the crows. Dorothy
  tells him to wake up!

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Tin Man

• Industrial workers He had once been human but,
  the Wicked Witch of the East put a curse on his
  axe. With every swing of his axe, he had chopped
  off a part of his body (Industrial accidents).
• Dehumanized by factory labor, he had rusted
  solid, symbolizing the closing of factories
  during the depression of 1893.
• He also represents the hardened worker.

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Cowardly Lion

• William Jennings Bryan Democratic nominee for
  president in 1896 and endorsed by the Populist
  Party.
• When the Cowardly Lion first meets Dorothy and
  her companions, he strikes the Tin Man but does
  not make a dent in his metal body (Bryan failed
  to win the vote of industrial labor).
• Baum revealed his skepticism about politicians
  through the Lion.
• Bryan may have been a great orator, but despite
  his roar, he had no REAL power. All bark by no
  bite.
• He didnt have the power to get it done.

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Were off to see the Wizard

• The group journeys to Oz, representing Washington
  DC, remniscent of the march on Washington DC that
  occurred in winter of 1893-94.
• Jacob Coxey organized a small group of unemployed
  workers to march on the capital in an effort to
  convince the government to put more money into
  circulation and use those funds for public works
  programs, to put people back to work.
• Coxeys army was modest and easily put down. It
  was a unique event because they looked to the
  federal government to sponsor this program.

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Emerald City

• Washington D.C.
• In the book, the Emerald City it is bland white.
  People are required to wear green glasses upon
  entry to give the city the illusion of being
  emerald colored.
• Represents disillusionment of the government.
• Greenbacks (Increasing the amount of money in
  circulation as done during the Civil War).

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The Wicked Witch of the West

• Malignant nature and the factors farmers in the
  West dealt with while trying to make a living
• Infertile soil drought.
• Railroad companies (Rates/renatl siloh rates)
• She wanted Dorothy to give up her silver slippers
  (Bimetalism)

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Monkeys

• Native Americans
• Were once free in the forests until Oz ruled the
  land.
• Another difficult factor for farmers who wanted
  their land out West (Associated with the Wicked
  Witch of the West)

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Wicked Witch of the Wests Guards

• Federal Troops Sent by the government to help
  the Railroads.

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Death of the Wicked Witch in the West

• In order to get what they want, the Wizard tells
  them to kill the Wicked Witch of the West who
  represents the destructive forces of nature.
• Dorothy kills by dousing her with a bucket of
  water, symbolizing the drought that had been
  plaguing the West in the 1890s.

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The Wizard of Oz

• President McKinley (Or any Gilded Age President)
• The Wizards power is an illusion/Like the
  President.
• Therefore, it is misguided to look to the
  Wizard/President for solutions.
• The Wizard did not want to see the people (No one
  ever saw him) which made everyone fearful, even
  though he is just a regular person (Just like the
  President).
• With the presentation of the broom, the Wizard is
  exposed as a fraud and becomes nothing more than
  a common man.
• The Wizard was lazzaie fare with the group and
  they took care of the Witch themselves. He had no
  powerthe group did.
• Reminder We are the government.

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The Wizard of Oz cont.

• Gilded Age Politicians
• In the book, the Wizard appears to be a giant
  head to Dorothy, to the scarecrow, a gossamer
  fairy, to the Tin Man as a beast and to the
  Cowardly Lion as a ball of firejust as
  politicians try to be all things to all people.
• Fake, hidden behind a curtain.
• Like every good politician, he gives the people
  what they want. The Wizard manages to provide
  everyone with something to satisfy their desire.

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You Had the Power All Along

• Dorothy doesnt understand the power she
  possesses.
• She learns of her power in the end of the story.
  
• Look to yourselves for the solution.
• The characters pull themselves up by their
  bootstraps.
• Every character possesses the virtues they doubt.
  
• Scarecrow left in charge of Oz.
• There was no Wizardthe people had the power all
  alongthat is what America is all about.

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Theres No Place Like Home

• Dorothy, like all farmers, always had the power
  to return home and to gain power.
• By simply clicking her silver heels together
  (Swtitching to the 161 oz standard) and
  returning home to her all-American, Midwestern
  values.

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Theres No Place Like Home Cont.

• A return to the pre-industrial America
• Backward-looking/conservative.
• Simple, small town America before
• immigrants and freedman.
• Anti-modernity. Xenophobic.
• Honoring Farmers and bringing respect to the
  Republican Farmer.

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Conclusion

• Ideally, the Populist Party were victorious
  because the people had the power all along and
  they were courageous enough to prove it. The fake
  Wizard(President) leaves Oz in the hands of the
  Scarecrow (Jeffersonian farmer).
• As a result of the Populist victory, Dorothy is
  able to return home to pre-industrial America.

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A Dream????

• When Dorothy wakes up, she realizes that it was
  just a dreamnothing has changed.
• Or has it? We are more enlightened.
• What do you think Baum was trying to do by
  writing this story?

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Populist Successes

• Never gain the Presidency
• However they influence the passage of the
  following Democratic Reforms
• 1) Secret Ballot
• 2) Senators selected by popular votes.