L. Frank Baum,
had said that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written "solely to pleasure the children”. If he in fact said this, we must believe
him. There is no question though that
everything he had experienced and read prior to writing Oz seeped out through
his consciousness and into the literature, providing adult readers with much
more than an average children’s book’s text.
The fact that Baum chose to cast Dorothy, as a strong, young, female,
lead character is probably the most important entity in this work. Dorothy a little girl helped to free the
Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow of their own self-consciousness and pity, growing
herself as a young female. The male
characters in Oz are notably sillier and smaller minded then Dorothy
herself. This is now seen in almost
every sitcom on television today, from Homer Simpson to Ray Romano, to Joey
from Friends.
From the beginning Dorothy
possesses this kind of power and invincibility.
The men need help, the men are dim witted and helpless, even doomed
without her. This is still interesting
today but especially the time period of the 1900’s when L. Frank Baum wrote The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The great Oz
himself turns out to be a pathetic man hiding behind a curtain. His does prove his magic, but only with the
help of their believes. Baum was clearly
using his power as the author to mold the reader’s minds maybe without them
even knowing it. Baum used the classic children’s
book setup of pushing morals onto the kids but brings it into a more important
dynamic of role reversal and identity, all done while still playing off a
common adventure story archetype.