Wizard of Oz wore to protect themselves from minorities getting into control. This is the central idea of many hate groups such as the KKK, the fear of minorities rising. Dorothy and her followers stripped down this ‘safety blanket’ and revealed the societies true intentions, which is to marginalize minorities further. By doing this, many women have the same courage Dorothy did by approaching a man/society and accepting the challenge of obtaining equal rights. Dorothy’s fantastic adventure appeals to many women of the 30s and 40s. This was a time of brutal oppression against women, where women's roles were strict of that in the kitchen. Lantz describes women of that time and their roles in depth as she states, “And just like Frederick Allen’s …show more content…
These women certainly seem to carry the stereotype of what constitutes the good woman to the audience (Cloud 108). Glinda gives the audience a figure to aspire to be. As Cloud states, she is very feminine with bright pink colors, her hair is curled to perfection, and her beautiful long dress is almost childlike. Dorothy looks up to her as a mother figure. Glinda has nurturing qualities and pushes them on Dorothy as well. The Wicked Witch of the West is the exact opposite of being unattractive and unwelcoming to Dorothy. This poses two type of women in the 30s and 40s: one that appeases men and stays in the home, and one that goes against the formalities of what defines a woman, resulting in hatred towards her. Dorothy chooses the type of women she wants to be minute she gets to the land of Oz by crushing the other Wicked Witch. Dorothy adheres to stereotypes and chooses to follow in the footsteps of Glinda. In Edward Recchia’s, “There’s No Place Like Home: The Midwest in American Film Musicals,” he talks about the way Dorothy provocatively defeats the witches saying, “the witches are destroyed not through consciously antagonistic acts by Dorothy
The main character of Dorothy Must Die is named Amy Gumm. Amy Gumm is the protagonist of this story while Dorothy Gale is the antagonist. Amy Gumm changes in the story from being sarcastic, scared at what was going on and not having very many friends, to being tough, brave and still very sarcastic. Amy does the right thing when the wizard of Oz tells her to kill the Tin Woodman by removing his heart. Although Amy knows it's not the good thing to do, she knows that it's the right thing to do. Amy also does the right thing when she sees a wingless monkey tied to a post with a sign that stated For The Crime Of Sass. Amy was very surprised that the beloved Dorothy would punish a monkey for sass. Amy freed him from the post even though she knew she would be punished. I can identify with Amy when she shows how kind she is with the monkey. She freed him and continued to stick by his side through the first few chapters of the book, even though a munchkin named Indigo, who was helping Amy, told her not too. One character who was a big part of Dorothy Must Die was Mombi. She is the leader of the Revolutionary Order
Picture a child sitting in front of a television watching the Wizard of Oz. To them, it is an assortment of magical beings, a land filled with wonderful places, with varieties of different colors. They do not picture it as something with far more meaning than just a plain fairytale. On the other hand, gender/feminist critics have been able to analyze the Wizard of Oz as well as Wicked, in order to find a more elaborate meaning behind the story itself. They have discussed what lies behind the story when it comes to the issue of sexism and masculinity towards the book itself as well as the characters. There are many concepts as well that help to further explain feminism and gender criticism. The four concepts that will be discussed
The placement of a prop or altering the way the light shines on a scene, however insignificant they may seem, are ways that the director can select and control meaning in a film. Such is in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939), specifically during the scene where Dorothy (Judy Galand) has been locked in the Wicked Witch of the West's (Margaret Hamilton) castle room by herself; many aspects of mise-en-scene are noticeable. Many of the elements of the scene she is in contribute to her state and other aspects of the movie. The setting and props of the film all seem to centralize to where she is and how she got there. The light focus' just on Dorothy but also amplifies the intensity of the situation she is in. The behavior of
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz projects its message in a very subtle unsuspected way. For a child the story is just a magical story full of colors but underlying the colors “Baum created a children’s story with a symbolic allegory implicit within its story line and characterization” (50). The book is full of symbolism, when Dorothy lands on West Witch with her house, she is given a pair of silver slippers by the Good Witch of the North. She is
The Wizard of Oz is a classic known by all. The plot is fairly simple. Poor bored Dorothy is sick of her normal boring life on her Aunt and Uncles farm in Kansas and decides to run away to a more exciting life. Her plans are changed when she meets a fortune teller who convinces her to go back home. Unfortunately, as she is headed back home a horrible storm starts and she and her dog Toto are blown away, along with her house. When she lands, she comes outside to see that she has landed on a person with red shoes. She is met by tiny people and a witch called Glinda who tells her that she has landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East. Dorothy tells Glinda she wants to go home, and Glinda tells her if she follows the yellow brick road she will end up in the Emerald City where the Wonderful Wizard of Oz can help get her home.
The Wizard has modern ideals for Oz and has harsh views towards anything seen as more traditional or “royalist,” such as one of the several religions in Oz, Lurlinism, as stated in the quote, “...public Lurlinism - even as a joke - bordered on being intolerably retrograde, even royalist. And that did not do in the Wizard’s reign.” He rules over Oz as a dictator, and is not open to opposition from citizens; his word is final even when there is logic against him, according to the quote, “‘I don’t believe, Elphie, that the Wizard is open to entertaining arguments, even by as august an Animal as Doctor Dillamond.’” The Wizard causes the oppression of Oz, therefore creating the Marxist environment of Wicked.
In The Wizard of Oz, the ordinary world and the beginning of the adventure are presented with stunning visual effects. Dorothy, the protagonist, is shown struggling in her ordinary world. She is confronted by the mean neighbor Miss Gulch who wants to take away Dorothy’s dog Toto and give him to the animal control authorities because of Toto’s bad behavior. Dorothy reacts childishly with a temper tantrum, begging her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em not to let Miss Gulch have her way. She confronts Miss Gulch when she tries to take Toto, saying, “You wicked old witch! Uncle Henry, Auntie Em, don't let 'em take Toto! Don't let her take him -- please!” (The Wizard of Oz). In a fit of temper, Dorothy decides to run away because she thinks that it is the only way she can protect her dog from Miss Gulch. The plot picks up the story of Dorothy’s life at a rather bleak point. Dorothy is portrayed as powerless and directionless and she does not appreciate the gifts she has in her family and life. Her character flaws and areas of growth are clear from such behavior. She seeks to be the leader of her own life but she lets temper get in the way of her enacting effective change. Furthermore, in her decision to run away Dorothy shows that she does not appreciate those who love her or the blessings of her loving home.
In pages 32 through 34 from the Book ‘Two or Three things i know for sure’ Dorothy includes an image of her family, more specifically the women in her family. Now in page 32 Dorothy explained that the women on her family were not considered beautiful stating, “the women of my family were measured, manlike, sexless, bearers of babies, burden and concept” (Pg.32) with that she incorporates the image of the women were she says that they look “exhausted”, “old”, “ugly” and she goes on to give a brief description of the type of clothing they were wearing and on their appearance where she say’s “solid, stolid, widehipped baby machines. We were all wide- hipped and
The role gender holds in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not one many were familiar with at the time it was written. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz reverses the accepted gender roles of its time, women taking control, even helping men in times of need. This idea is depicted throughout the entire novel, affecting almost every character introduced. This novel essentially questions and challenges the accepted beliefs on the roles of gender in the society at that time, showing how things would be if roles were different. With this, through a description of the characters, you can see who was empowered by Baum and who held an inferior role.
She could also go to the extreme trying to save animal civil rights because of what she believes in, even if it means to have no one to support her. She was coldly rejected when she tried to ask the Wizard for assistance, but ended revolting against him to save the remaining animals that were tortured and brutally killed. As you can tell, the image of the Wizard of Oz is not so welcoming compared to Maguire’s novel versus Buam's novel.
Many of the farmers from the West blamed their problems on the wealthy and industry. Later on in the text, Dorothy meets the Good Witch of the North. The Good Witch represents a Northern electorate who had supported populism. The Good Witch sends Dorothy to go to the Wizard of Oz, down the yellow brick road to Emerald City, who has the power to send her back to Kansas. The Good Witch also gives Dorothy the silver shoes, which also serves as protection. This can relate to the Bimetalism vs. Gold Standard. I say this because Dorothy shoes are silver and she is sent to go down the yellow brick road, which can be seen as gold bricks. This can be known as gold money. In this time, it was clear that silver vs. gold was important to the farmers involving the economy. The silver was supposed to be available for the working class, and would increase the amount of money for the working class. In the text, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion. The Scarecrow represents the western farmers, and how their hardships and troubles from inflation caused them to have doubts and problems with their money. The Tinman represents the American worker who mostly has populist views. He also represents how the worker felt dehumanized and was helpless. In addition to this, the Wicked Witch of the East put a spell on him that every time he swung his axe, he would chop a piece of him off. This would make his body smaller, in relation to his work being minimized by the
By the start on the twentieth century, The Wizard of Oz was the new view of American society. The impact of this film had on society in terms of feminism raises reader's awareness about the characters and morals found in this storyline. I have found that the mentality of women is represented all throughout the novel, and it provides a timeline of representations of the feminist movement. A good response to The Wizard of Oz would have to be the novel Wicked. At the beginning of the twentieth century, all women were gaining their independence, with societal freedoms and government recognition.
The Wicked Witch of the West’s hunger for power is another big part of her character. She spends much of her time in both the film and the book wanting the ruby slippers, or in the case of the book, the silver shoes, because of the powers they possess. One might also speculate that an additional reason the Witch was so mad at Dorothy when her sister was squashed, is because the witch felt threatened by this newcomer that is apparently powerful enough to kill a witch. If the Witch of the West did, in fact, feel threatened by Dorothy, it would certainly explain why she felt the need to continually assert her dominance over Dorothy and threaten her.
In the movie the Wizard of Oz, based on the book written by L. Frank Baum, the conflict can be labeled as person vs. self. Dorothy, who can be viewed as both the protagonist and antagonist, spends the entire movie swirling around in her own head, unsure what to do, while the entire time she has the power to get back to where she belongs. When Dorothy is the protagonist, she’s fully in Oz, trying to solve her problem and go back to Kansas. However, she antagonizes herself by overlooking the power she was granted in the first place, the slippers that would get her home again. In the initial incident, Dorothy sings the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow to show her wishing to be somewhere else.
While there are many themes that L. Frank Baum writes about in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that focuses on a young, maturing girl named Dorothy Gale; that is living in a grey world and then suddenly her life is full of color after a cyclone. Throughout the story, Dorothy Gale is reminded that the land of Oz is beautiful and much more interesting that Kansas ever will and it takes her awhile to realize it along her adventurous plan. The two themes that stand out throughout the story is the childhood to maturity that Dorothy progresses in and a twisted way that makes you see the virtue in the story, also known as the disability of it all. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not all just a children's fairytale. Although the land of Oz is depicted as