Hate you, hate Kansas, took the dog. --Dorothy
It’s been a while since I’ve been here. Given the state of what passed for debate during this election season, I haven’t missed it. So I spent this evening not watching the election returns, but watching The Wizard of Oz.
Most of us are familiar with the 1939 musical film adaptation of the 1902 Broadway musical. In the story, young Dorothy and her pet dog Toto are swept away with their Kansas farmhouse by a tornado to the magical Land of Oz. The farmhouse crashes onto the Wicked Witch of the East, the evil ruler of the Munchkins and kills the witch. The Good Witch of the North arrives and gives Dorothy the magical Silver Shoes that once belonged to the witch. She tells Dorothy that the only way she can return to Kansas is to go to the Emerald City and ask the Wizard of Oz to help her. The good witch kisses her forehead, providing magical protection from harm along her journey.
Along the way down the yellow brick road, Dorothy frees the Scarecrow from a pole he was hanging on, oils the Tin Man’s rusted connections and befriends the Cowardly Lion. All of these characters want something—the Scarecrow wants a heart, the Tin Man a brain, and the Cowardly Lion wants courage, so Dorothy suggests that the three of them journey with her and Toto to the Emerald City to ask the Wizard of Oz to help them.
After arriving at the Emerald City, Dorothy and her friends meet with the Wizard who agrees to help them if they kill the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy is warned that no one has been able to defeat the witch. When the Wicked Witch sees the travelers approach, she instructs a pack of wolves to attack, but the Tin Man kills the wolves with his axe. The Wicked Witch sends wild crows to peck their eyes out, but Scarecrow breaks the crows’ necks. She sends bees to sting Dorothy and her companions, but the bees die trying to sting the Tin Man while the Scarecrow hides Dorothy, Toto and the Cowardly Lion from the bees. The Cowardly Lion stands firm and repels a group of Winkie soldiers sent to attack Dorothy. Finally the Wicked Witch uses the power of the Golden Cap to send the winged monkeys to capture Dorothy and her group. She makes Dorothy her slave while scheming to steal her silver slippers. Dorothy escapes from the Wicked Witch by dousing her with water causing the witch to melt away.
The return to the Wizard of Oz who is revealed to be an old man from Omaha who came to Oz in a hot-air balloon. The Wizard provides the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion with items to cure their shortcomings. He also agrees to take Dorothy back to Kansas in his balloon, but when Toto chases after a cat and Dorothy goes after him, the balloon takes off with the Wizard by himself.
Dorothy learns that Glinda the Good Witch of the South may be able to help her get home so the group sets off to find Glinda. More adventure abounds along the way when the Cowardly Lion kills a giant spider terrorizing the animals in the forest who make the Lion their king. When they find Glinda, she tells Dorothy that the silver shoes can take her anywhere she wants to go. Dorothy clicks her heels three time and wishes to go back to Kansas while she holds Toto. She returns to Kansas. and tells her Aunt Em she’s so glad to be home again.
Many of the references from the movie have made it into culture such as pulling the curtain back to reveal the wizard is an illusion and clicking your heels three times while making a wish. Maybe that is fitting—the illusion that the people at the top have great power, but in reality they can’t control the masses no matter how many times they click their silver shoes together and wish it so.
