# Concerning The Wizard of OZ **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 21, 2003, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008 "2003-03-21T04:10:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/21 "2003-03-27T05:11:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CwazyKono \* > \*\*Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Littlefield said that he made up the story. > > Baum’s goal was to write a piece of children’s literature, and he used the Populist movement as a sort of backdrop to the whole thing. You can tell us facts about him, his political views, his shoe size, and what his favorite color was…but you can not explain the obvious, multiple, well cited instances in the story that seem to refer to the Populist movement! . \*\* So, to paraphrase Cecil, if you’re correct, how 'bout answering the following: Why _are_ the forces of nature (the Wicked Witch of the West), so damned hot for the free coinage of silver (the Silver Slippers)? In the book, the witch resorts to a fairly elaborate trap to try and get 'em. Why are the forces of nature (the Wicked Witch of the West) controlling the Plains Indians (the Winged Monkeys)? The Witch had the magic cap that gave her absolute power over them, but only for three wishes, remember. Why is the “midwestern farmer” represented by the Scarecrow made King of Oz, while the “dehumanized worker” (The Tin Woodsman) only a state governer (He’s made “king of the Winkies”, which amounts to govenership) and, much more importantly, why was William Jennings Bryant (The Cowardly Lion), who was _endored_ by the Populists for president. merely given what amounts to the position of mayor of a small town? (He becomes king of a small jungle in a “state” ruled by Glinda) For that matter, why would a Populist portray their candidate as a coward? Remember, unlike the treacly “You ALWAYS had what you wanted inside you already” message from the movie, in the book, the Cowardly Lion really _is_ a coward. He remains a coward until the Wizard gives him a bottle of “magic liquid courage”…the actual line from the Wizard is something very close to “Lots of men find their courage in a bottle” and portrays this as a _good_ thing. Without a doubt, Baum is referencing alcohol. Given that Bryan pro-temperance… Look: if you want political satire in the Oz books why not deal with the real stuff, rather than an admitted fraud\*, General Jinjur in **The Marvelous Land of Oz** was Baum poking fun at his Mother-In-Law (who he adored, IIRC) who was a major advocate for Suffrage for Women (she co-wrote a book with Susan B. Anthony). Fenris \*or humbug 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/22 "2003-03-27T05:16:18Z")
> [@](#): > > …in the story that seem to refer to the Populist movement… Hrmm, “seem to refer” is a pretty weak statement. Lots of things can appear to refer to other things if you look at them in the proper light. Lord of the Rings can seem to refer to WWII if looked at in a certain way, but without documentation that it was the author’s intent, you’re left with a huge assumption. All you have currently is some similarities and a superimposed model on top of a work of fiction. It’s inconsistent with what we know about the author, subsequent pieces by the author in the same fictional universe, and some internal conflicts. Without something to tie it to the author’s intentions, I’d say your case is not yet made. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/23 "2003-03-27T06:36:47Z")
**CwazyKono** , so what you’re saying is, ignore the author, what does he have to do with it? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/24 "2003-03-27T12:30:17Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Littlefield said that he made up the story. I guess that saying that he and his students made it up and that it has “no basis in fact” (his words) hardly counts as evidence at all. C K Dexter Haven has already [demonstrated](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=171804) the uselessness of pointing out “correspondences”. Anyone with the least bit of creativity (or derangement) can spin out nonsense to “prove”, for example, that _Hamlet_ is really about that upper-class twit of the millennium, Eddie Oxenford; or that _Winnie the Pooh_ is really about sex, or Marxism, or Anglo-Catholicism; or that a poem a man wrote about his dead daughter is really about Ruritanian politics. It proves nothing. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/25 "2003-03-27T17:50:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CwazyKono \* > \*\*I will cite multiple, extremely credible sources tomorrow. You’re arguments do not hold up against such a well documented subject. \*\* “Tomorrow, tomorrow I love you, tomorrow You’re always a day away.” Hey-what’s _Annie_ an allegory for? Any theories? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/26 "2003-03-29T06:40:37Z")
She’s telling a suitor that she will some day be his, but it’s always a day away, so it’s never actually going to get there. She’s stringing him on. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/27 "2003-03-29T13:06:35Z")
Her red dress and red hair are symbolic of Communism. Sandy is the imperialist dog. In the comics, she has blank eyes, indicating that Communism is short-sighted. I daren’t go on. ---
**Author:** ![DasUnterMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DasUnterMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DasUnterMensch)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2003, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/28 "2003-03-29T17:36:02Z")
I’ve always thought Willie Wonka was a psychosexual/drug metaphor for the 60s Anybody here wanna prove me wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/29 "2003-03-31T15:51:30Z")
Naw, Willy was just plain nuts. Almonds, probably, since they go so well with chocolate. Or maybe peanuts. Regardless, he was definitely wonked. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Cobweb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7c8e57/32.png) [@Dr.Cobweb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Cobweb)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/30 "2003-03-31T19:51:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by John W. Kennedy \* > **_Winnie the Pooh_ is really about sex** Of course! It’s all so obvious when it’s pointed out. Pooh’s obsession with sticking his paw into a honey pot; Piglet’s blatant Oedipal tendencies; Eeyore’s melancholy due to his problems with finding and hanging on to a little tail. . . . Milne was obviously a filthy minded pervert. It’s enough to make a tonstant weader fwow up. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/31 "2003-03-31T21:45:22Z")
Have you actually never read Karl Anschauung’s classic “A. A. Milne’s Honey-bear-pit-bathtub-balloon-complex”? ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2003, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/32 "2003-04-04T22:31:37Z")
Well, duh, Dr. Cobweb. Gets kinky when Tigger puts on that top that’s made out of rubber, doesn’t it? Then there’s that suspiciously close relationship between Kanga and Roo; isn’t he kind of old to be spending so much time in her ‘pouch’? Weird. Eerie. Twisted. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/33 "2003-04-07T13:08:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Irishman \* > \*\ ***CwazyKono** , so what you’re saying is, ignore the author, what does he have to do with it? \*\* Actually, isn’t there a whole school of criticism–New Criticism, IIRC–based on that very premise? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/34 "2003-04-07T14:17:28Z")
No, the new school involves analyzing the text of a work for scripts that the author had not intended. What Irishman is pointing out is that the author of the **critique** doesn’t believe that _Oz_ is an allegory. Even the deconstructionists acknowledge the difference between an author’s intent and the text itself. ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_Mexico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@Roger\_Mexico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_Mexico)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/35 "2003-04-08T18:19:44Z")
The OP forgot to mention the obvious references in WOz about the gold/silver standard debate, to wit, the yellow brick road and the fact that Oz is the abbreviation for ounce. ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_Mexico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@Roger\_Mexico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_Mexico)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/36 "2003-04-08T22:07:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by C K Dexter Haven \* > \*\*Her red dress and red hair are symbolic of Communism. Sandy is the imperialist dog. In the comics, she has blank eyes, indicating that Communism is short-sighted. > > I daren’t go on. \*\* And Daddy Warbucks might possibly represent the capitalist merchants of death like the Duponts who promulgate and profit from wars, but I dare not say it, lest I get flamed as a communist sympathizer. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008/37 "2003-04-08T23:19:39Z")
I realize this is all in fun, but you _are_ aware that Harold Gray practically regarded FDR as a communist? (The musical would have made him throw up.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/concerning-the-wizard-of-oz/163008.md?page=1)