What did everyone get from the wizard in "The Wizard of Oz"

[carlotta]

This is just a quick check. I think I know…

Scarecrow: diploma
Tin Man: heart shaped watch
Lion: medal? (this is the one I’m most uncertain about)
Dorothy: nothing

It was just them right? I’m not forgetting anyone right?

See, I want to do a little retirement ceremony for my Dad, and since he loves “The Wizard of Oz” echoing this scene would be great and they all seem apropos (when I get to the end, Dorothy’s turn, I’ll say something about how there’s no place like home), but it would be lame if I got something wrong.

Thanks!

[Agrippina]

I think the Lion gets a badge of courage.

[Shagnasty]

The cowardly lion did get a medal for courage.. Dorothy didn’t get anything from the Wizard directly.

[Skywatcher]

Dorothy did get an offer to ride in his balloon. Is it feasible to get him a ride in a hot-air balloon somewhere?

[CalMeacham]

as my wife, Pepper Mill , pointed out, there’s a cute thing when the Wizard gives the Lion his medal (“Look, it says ‘Courage’! Ain’t it the truth!”) – there’s a flash as of a photographic flash going off. It’s as if the Wizard really is giving the medal at a ceremony (as he describes). You have to look for it, but it’s there.
As has been pointed out often enough on these Boards, the Scarecrow really messes us the Pythagorean Theorem. This may be a joke, or it may be a sign hat the “Wizard” really is just a con-man.
Dorothy didn’t get “nothing” – the Wiz was taking her home, at the cost of his own position (which, admittedly, could be seen as pretty shaky at that point). Ain’t his fault Toto screwed it up.
That’s pretty much it.

In the book, the Wizard gives the scarecrow a stuffed head – he stuffs it with pins and needles, so he’ll be “sharp”. The Tin Man’s watch gets implanted in his chest (the Wiz does an “operation” – cutting open, then sealing his tin chest - to get it there, although it’s still just a watch). I think the Lion gets a medal or something, but it’s seen as inadequate. And he still messes up getting Dorothy home.

[Otto]

Scarecrow’s diploma is an honorary degree of Th.D., Doctor of Thinkology. Lion’s medal is the Triple Cross, making him a member of the Legion of Courage. And Tin Man’s watch is a “testimonial.”

[Ukulele_Ike]

@CalMeacham

In the book…I think the Lion gets a medal or something.

I recall him getting a Bowl of Courage, which he lapped up like a kitty.

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

I echo Ike: in the book, the lion gets a bowl of liquid. Dorothy asks, “What is it?” and the Wizard says, well, on the inside, it’s courage. So the lion laps it up.

[kaylasdad99]

@CalMeacham

In the book, the Wizard gives the scarecrow a stuffed head – he stuffs it with pins and needles, so he’ll be “sharp”. The Tin Man’s watch gets implanted in his chest (the Wiz does an “operation” – cutting open, then sealing his tin chest - to get it there, although it’s still just a watch). I think the Lion gets a medal or something, but it’s seen as inadequate. And he still messes up getting Dorothy home.

As I recall, there was some bran mixed in with the pins and needles the scarecrow got, so the Wizard was able to call them “bran-new brains.”

The Lion got some sort of placebo powder mixed in a dish of water, which he drank from the floor like a big ol’ kitty lapping up a saucer of milk.

BTW, shouldn’t that be Erwin? Or am I missing another of your more subtle nuances?

[jayjay]

@kaylasdad99

The Lion got some sort of placebo powder mixed in a dish of water, which he drank from the floor like a big ol’ kitty lapping up a saucer of milk.

It’s been a while since I read the book, but I always thought the liquid courage was…well, “liquid courage”, aka booze.

[Captain_Amazing]

Here’s the text from the story.

So the Wizard unfastened his head and emptied out the straw. Then he entered the back room and took up a measure of bran, which he mixed with a great many pins and needles. Having shaken them together thoroughly, he filled the top of the Scarecrow’s head with the mixture and stuffed the rest of the space with straw, to hold it in place.
When he had fastened the Scarecrow’s head on his body again he said to him, “Hereafter you will be a great man, for I have given you a lot of bran-new brains.”
The Scarecrow was both pleased and proud at the fulfillment of his greatest wish, andhaving thanked Oz warmly he went back to his friends.
Dorothy looked at him curiously. His head was quite bulged out at the top with brains.
“How do you feel?” she asked.
“I feel wise indeed,” he answered earnestly. “When I get used to my brains I shall know everything.”
“Why are those needles and pins sticking out of your head?” asked the Tin Woodman.
“That is proof that he is sharp,” remarked the Lion.

Very well," answered the little man. “But I shall have to cut a hole in your breast, so I can put your heart in the right place. I hope it won’t hurt you.”
“Oh, no,” answered the Woodman. “I shall not feel it at all.”
So Oz brought a pair of tinsmith’s shears and cut a small, square hole in the left side of the Tin Woodman’s breast. Then, going to a chest of drawers, he took out a pretty heart, made entirely of silk and stuffed with sawdust.
“Isn’t it a beauty?” he asked.
“It is, indeed!” replied the Woodman, who was greatly pleased. “But is it a kind heart?”
“Oh, very!” answered Oz. He put the heart in the Woodman’s breast and then replaced the square of tin, soldering it neatly together where it had been cut.
“There,” said he; “now you have a heart that any man might be proud of. I’m sorry I had to put a patch on your breast, but it really couldn’t be helped.”

“I have come for my courage,” announced the Lion, entering the room.
“Very well,” answered the little man; “I will get it for you.”
He went to a cupboard and reaching up to a high shelf took down a square green bottle, the contents of which he poured into a green-gold dish, beautifully carved. Placing this before the Cowardly Lion, who sniffed at it as if he did not like it, the Wizard said:
“Drink.”
“What is it?” asked the Lion.
“Well,” answered Oz, “if it were inside of you, it would be courage. You know, of course, that courage is always inside one; so that this really cannot be called courage until you have swallowed it. Therefore I advise you to drink it as soon as possible.”
The Lion hesitated no longer, but drank till the dish was empty.
“How do you feel now?” asked Oz.
“Full of courage,” replied the Lion, who went joyfully back to his friends to tell them of his good fortune.
Oz, left to himself, smiled to think of his success in giving the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman and the Lion exactly what they thought they wanted. “How can I help being a humbug,” he said, “when all these people make me do things that everybody knows can’t be done? It was easy to make the Scarecrow and the Lion and the Woodman happy, because they imagined I could do anything. But it will take more than imagination to carry Dorothy back to Kansas, and I’m sure I don’t know how it can be done.”

[Captain_Amazing]

Then of course, he and Dorothy build a balloon, but the guide rope breaks before Dorothy can find Toto and get on, and the Wizard flies away, never to be seen again.

[jayjay]

@Captain Amazing

Then of course, he and Dorothy build a balloon, but the guide rope breaks before Dorothy can find Toto and get on, and the Wizard flies away, never to be seen again.

At least until Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz…

[Large_Marge]

Funny. I read the title of this thread to mean: What did the wizard in “The Wizard of Oz” represent to you?

I had a whole different answer prepared.

[carlotta]

Well, what DID the wizard represent to you?

[DrMemory]

Sorry if I derail this thread for a few…

I’ve been curious to read some of the other “OZ” books. I know he wrote quite a few. Are they worth seeking out? Is there one I should start with? Are they written so they are best read in order, or may one jump- in and hold-on? Thanks.