According to L. Frank Baum, The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written solely
to please. His creation of a new “wonder tale” for America has brought delight
for generations, being adapted over the last 100 years. Dorothy’s journey down
the yellow brick road resonates in the minds of Americans with each echoing
step. Baum’s tale did more than please. Oz became the American folktale and America embraced the phrase “there’s
no place like home.” (Baum, 33)
But
what was this home Baum spoke of? And what was it to become on the return from
Oz? In the 19th century
a force was sounding across the nation. Like a cyclone building, women’s voices
rose together for the right to vote. From 1848 to 1920, women across states—East
and West—battled for their rights inside and outside the domestic sphere. Baum
wrote in his editorial of the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer “…the moment a woman’s
hand is felt at the reins of government will date an era of unexampled
prosperity for our country.” (Rogers, 30) This statement given in 1890, was
made at a time when women were denied property rights, ownership of wages if
married, they had limited avenues towards gaining education, and were refused
the right to vote on the politicians who governed them. Ten years later, Baum
introduced America to Dorothy and Glinda in his novel The Wonderful Wizard
of Oz. A time before the iconic Dorothy of
today was the resounding Judy Garland of the MGM film creation, Dorothy was the
young, “small and meek,” (Baum, 107) girl Baum had written. Her journey across Oz was grasped by America, selling over 37,000 copies
in the first fifteen months (Rogers, 88), and readers took young Dorothy under
their wings.
There
have been various interpretations of Oz.
Some have discussed how the land of Oz may be viewed as a map of the United
States. Baum wrote a tale that reflects the American country and the political
issues of the time. More than
this, the novel can be argued as not just a reflection, but as a proclamation
for woman’s suffrage. Baum’s story portrays women as leaders not hidden behind
magic, curtains, or men. Furthermore, he wrote of women leading men upon an
equal path.
Under
the mask of a modern folktale, Baum presented modern political issues behind a
veil of tradition understood by the masses. It was through this genre of
folktale, largely allocated to children’s literature, that Baum was able to
mask the struggles of women suffragists within Oz and show how young innocent girls could, and would, fight for their
rights and home. Home representing the domestic realm. Home being an
industrialized nation. Home as family. And most importantly, home signifying a
new America, which granted women the natural rights already granted men.
Examine
the relations contained within The Wizard of Oz and the nation it was written to represent. The American constitution
states, “All men are created equal,”—gender not specified as male or
female—within being equal, each individual has the right to, “life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.” While suffragists were attempting to grant women
their equal rights through “justice or expediency” (Kraditor, 52),
anti-suffragists of the late 1800s argued societal standards of the time: a
woman’s life and liberties were granted in caring for the home. Furnishing a
clean home, with hot meals ready for their family, women would achieve
happiness. Women were to raise educated sons to be active citizens and
daughters to follow in their path. Along with sociological arguments, anti’s
also argued biological reasons against woman’s suffrage. Anti’s viewed the
delicate nature of women made them too fragile to deal with the issues of
voting or be part of the governmental system; in essence, women were too
emotional to handle the responsibility of the vote.
Baum
however, took a different approach. He valued a well educated, decisive, strong
female mind.[1] As such, his
female characters represent the societal construct of women along with his own
views. Within the first chapter of The Wizard of Oz, Baum takes great lengths to describe the grayness
of Kansas, even more so, the effects it has on Aunt Em.
When
Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had
changed her […] They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober
gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also.
She was so thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. When Dorothy […] first came
to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child’s laughter that she would scream
and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy’s merry voice reached
her ears; and she still looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find
anything to laugh at. (Baum, 2)
Aunt Em once full of life, like
Dorothy is, has been reduced to a gray, meek figure, with no life or happiness.
Baum subtly provides readers the knowledge of what Dorothy is to become if she
remains in Kansas. Because of this, Dorothy is not able to pursue true
happiness until she steps outside her home and finds color and light. Still
very young and full of innocence and curiosity, Dorothy is swept away by a
natural occurrence. Dorothy, Toto, and her Kansas home are ripped outside the
gray boundaries of America, and written into a land bright and “marvelous of
beauty.”
Dorothy
sat up and noticed that the house was not moving; nor was it dark, for the bright
sunshine came in at the window, flooding the little room. She sprang from her
bed and with Toto at her heels ran and opened the door. (Baum, 9)
Suffragists
were also opening doors across the nation, attempting to provide women a sphere
outside the home and in the voting booth. It is important to recognize the
right to vote did not just provide an individual the ability to decide who
would govern them, the vote was, and still is, the right to lead. Change comes
from voting, and it takes strength and conviction to make the decisions that in
turn affect the populist. The fear anti-suffragists may have had was that once
a woman left the home she would never want to return. But it is Dorothy’s only
wish to return to her home, to her family, and to her country. “No matter how
dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live
there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There’s no place like
home.” (Baum, 32) In order to accomplish her return, Dorothy must first step on
the path through Oz to find her liberty. Young and delicate as she is, Baum
portrays Dorothy’s innocence and emotional nature not as a deterrent from
conflict—as anti-suffragists claimed—but instead as a key to logically seeing
the beauty and dangers at hand within Oz.
To
understand Dorothy’s desires, it is imperative to first understand the cyclone
that pushed her to take her first steps upon the Yellow Brick Road. The Seneca
Falls Convention of 1848 is considered the first documented meeting of the
American Woman’s Suffrage movement. Building upon its foundation, Matilda
Joslyn Gage found herself in the early beginnings of the Woman’s movement with Susan
B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the Syracuse National Woman’s Rights
Convention in1852.
It
is important to note Gage’s involvement within the Woman’s Suffrage movement,
as she was to become Baum’s mother-in-law and a heavy influence on his writing.
It was Gage who is noted as telling Baum, “If you don’t write these stories
down, you’re a fool.”[2]
Gage was a writer as well as a founding member of the NWSA, serving
between1869-1889. She was co-editor of the first three volumes of The
History of Woman Suffrage. And she formed
the Women’s National Liberal Union in 1890.[3]
Her work and theories were to become part of L. Frank Baum’s passion as well.
From 1890-1891, while writing the Aberbeen Saturday Pioneer, “twenty-eight out
of fifty-nine” of Baum’s editorials focused on equal suffrage. (Rogers 33)
Gage’s views on matriarchy and witchcraft written in her 1893 text Women,
Church and State were to become the
foundation to the political structure of Oz. Gage discusses how women influenced past societies,
“The tribe was united through the mother; social, political and religious life
were all in harmony with the idea of woman as the first and highest power.”
(Gage, 14) Baum applied Gages views to the construct of Oz. In the beginning
readers perceive the Wizard as the all powerful leader, however it is the Witch
of the North who provides Dorothy protection on her journey and by the end of
the story the reader finds Glinda to be the true ruler and only figure able to
grant each character their desires. Women are the most powerful in Oz. In essence, “Matilda gave Frank the blueprint for
the land of social justice he created.” (Wagner) Without Gage, America may
never have gained Oz as their
wonder-tale.
Gage
sought liberty on her own path. Inscribed upon her tombstone is the motto in
which she lived her life by: “There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or
Heaven; that word is Liberty.” (Gage Foundation) As suffragists traveled state by state to find their liberty,
Dorothy walked brick by brick upon the Yellow Brick Road. It is Dorothy who
makes the decision to take her first steps on the road, and it’s Dorothy who
takes the time to notice what lay upon it.
Along
her journey, Dorothy discovers the brains, heart and courage to achieve her
goal. The Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Lion provide her friends along the
folktale path, but they also reflect to Dorothy the strength and commitment she
possesses. Baum portrays each character searching for attributes
anti-suffragists’ argued were the reasons women should not be granted the vote.
Firstly, women were presumed to not have the knowledge and education level
required to make an informed voting decision. Yet Baum shows a young child able
to make a rational decision and choice. Katherine Rogers describes Dorothy as
having, “clear ideas of what is right and true, and calmly holds to them
regardless of what older and stronger people say.” (Rogers, 76) Given the
opportunity to stay with the Munchkins, Dorothy is resolved in her decision to
return home and follows the necessary steps to get there.
Women
were also viewed to live their life governed by their emotions rather than
logic. The concept was women would use their heart over their brains in the
voting booth. Baum places the debate to the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman.
Which is the better to live by, brains or heart? Dorothy questions this
herself,
“…she
was puzzled to know which of her two friends was right, and she decided
if she could only get back to Kansas and Aunt Em it did not matter so much
whether the Woodman had no brains and the Scarecrow no heart, or each got
what he wanted.” (Baum, 48)
Dorothy’s worry is her survival.
She is focused on her need to return home. Along the path readers find—as does
Dorothy—both the Scarecrow and the Tin-man already possess the brains and heart
they seek. Even the lion is recognized to have courage, and accepted on the
journey as Dorothy sees he is able to scare away the other “wild beasts.”
(Baum, 55)
Finally,
women were said to not have the strength to take on the demands of the vote. It
takes courage to lead. Dorothy, who retains the societal values America placed
on women of the time, also shows true courage and strength to win her battle
home. She holds the attributes woman suffragists wanted government to view in
all women. Dorothy leads her friends down the path to the Emerald City to meet
the Great and Terrible Wizard in the hope to achieve her desire. Upon their
meeting, the Wizard performs a great spectacle for each to view. In order for
any of them to receive their requests they are all sent on the same mission:
“Kill the Wicked Witch of the West.” (Baum, 109) As Dorothy is truly the only
character seeking what she does not have, it falls upon her to perform the
fatal act.
After
the Wicked Witch is melted away, a veil lifts when the curtain is pulled and
the Wizard is exposed to be merely “a common man.” (Baum, 158) It is not
without consideration Baum made the Wizard a “humbug.”(Baum, 158) The Wizard
represents the show government was performing. The Wizard’s spectacles, as
common in circuses as in politics, were nothing more than allusion. As the
Wizard states, “I have fooled everyone so long that I thought I should never be
found out,” (Baum, 158) so too was the American government fooling the public
by denying women the right to vote. It can be perceived then that Baum did not
see success in a government, which valued allusion over equal rights and he
recognized that if pressed the government would be exposed as fraudulent. When
Dorothy misses the ride in the balloon with the Wizard, Dorothy takes yet
another rational approach to find her way back to Aunt Em: she asks questions.
By doing so, Dorothy is told of Glinda, who is said to be “the most powerful of
all the Witches.” (Baum, 181)
Through
Glinda, Baum is able to exhibit how a country prospers by the hand of a woman
in government. Instead of spectacles and allusions, Glinda is a leader who is
kind, decisive, and has the true capacity to grant the rights sought by those
she rules. Furthermore, she provides awareness to Dorothy that Dorothy has
always had the abilities to achieve her return home. On her first steps away
from the old Kansas home, Dorothy received the silver shoes, which are “perfect
for a long walk.” (Baum, 22) Glinda informs Dorothy the silver shoes are
powerful in their own right, and Dorothy is granted her liberty. With three
clicks of the heels and three long steps, Dorothy is able to return to Aunt Em
in Kansas. In the small final paragraph of a page, we find a new Aunt Em
waiting for Dorothy.
Aunt
Em had just come out of the house to water the cabbages when she looked up
and saw Dorothy running toward her.
“My
darling child!” she cried, folding the little girl in her arms and covering
her face with kisses; “where in the world did you come from?”
“From
the Land of Oz,” said Dorothy gravely. “And here is Toto, too. And oh,
Aunt Em! I’m so glad to be at home again.” (Baum 219)
It’s
Baum’s use of simple contrast in which the reader sees life is beginning to
return to Aunt Em, the grayness has begun to lift, and as such Dorothy fate is
changed. As Katharine Roger’s points out of Baum’s writing, “The surface is
simple—plain words, straightforward sentences, concrete images—but the content
is far from simple-minded.” (Rogers, 74) Dorothy’s journey and return provide
Aunt Em the ability to be lifted out of the once gray Kansas. And in her return
Baum creates a new life for Dorothy. The old home, left behind in Oz, is now
new. Life is shown growing again in the crop of cabbages next to a newly built
home, and happiness is now present in Aunt Em as she embraces Dorothy. The
protective kiss of the Witch of the North is now replaced by kisses from Aunt
Em. The home Dorothy returns to is changed, and both women stand outside the
domestic home.
Who
would suspect so much masked in a children’s tale? Wasn’t the story merely to
entertain? Common within all folktales is the subversive nature they contain.
Matilda Joslyn Gage must have seen the small kernel Oz could place in America’s mind. She stated, “Not
legislation but education will bring about change; not external acts but
internal thoughts.” (Gage, 48) And how America has internalized the story of Oz.
No
matter the adaptation over the last 100 years, Oz is always representative of a young girl seeking acceptance and
change. As suffragists spent over 80 years fighting for women’s rights, Oz represented their fight for justice. L. Frank Baum
did exactly as he set out to do. He wrote a tale of hope that entertained, a
tale of new beginnings, a folktale for America. He wrote a story that showed
how rights could be sought and granted. Twenty years after the publication of The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the 19th
amendment granted women across the nation the right to vote. Nineteen years
later, America received the iconic Dorothy of today as well as her song,
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Salman Rushdie discusses the song as, “the human
dream of leaving. A dream at least as powerful as its counter-veiling dream of
roots, […its…] about the joys of going away. Of leaving the grayness and
entering the color.” (American Icons) The same can be said of the novel. The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz showed what happens
when the color is brought back home: it brightens the rooted future of family,
home, and country.
Works Cited
“American Icons: The Wizard of Oz.” Studio 360. Hosted by Kurt Anderson. Public Radio
International and WNYC Radio, New York. 28 Aug. 2009. Web. 10 June, 2011.
Baum, L.Frank. The Wizard of Oz. Illus. W.W. Denslow. New York: Ballantine, 1979.
Gage, Matilda Joslyn. Women, Church and State. New York: Arno Press, 1972.
Graham, Sara Hunter. “The Suffrage Renaissance.” One
Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering
the Woman Suffrage Movement. Ed. Marjorie
Spruill Wheeler. Oregon:
New Sage Press and Educational Film Center, 1995.
Kerr, Andrea Moore. “White Women’s Rights, Black Men’s
Wrong.” One Woman, One Vote:
Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement.
Ed. Marjorie Spruill Wheeler.
Oregon: New Sage Press
and Educational Film Center, 1995.
Kraditor, Aileen S. The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage
Movement 1890-1920. New York:W.W.
Norton & Company, 1981.
Rogers, Katharine M. L.Frank Baum Creator of OZ, A
Biography. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo
Press, 2002.
Wagner, Sally Roesch. “Family Parlor & Oz Room.” The
Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. 2 June 2011 <http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/gage-home/baumoz-family-room/>.
------. “Women’s Rights Room.” The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. 2 June 2011 <http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/gage-home/womens-rights-room/>.
Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill. “Introduction.” One Woman, One
Vote: Rediscovering the Woman
Suffrage Movement. Ed. Marjorie Spruill
Wheeler. Oregon: New Sage Press
and Educational Film Center, 1995.
------. “The Seneca Falls Convention.” One Woman, One
Vote: Rediscovering the Woman
Suffrage Movement. Ed. Marjorie Spruill
Wheeler. Oregon: New Sage Press
and Educational Film Center, 1995.
[1] His wife Matilda was not just head of home, but
finance as well. Within his marriage each played an equal role. For more
information on his life read K. Roger’s biography on his life.
[2] Various scholars document this statement. K. Rogers
biography and Studio 360: American Icons: The Wizard of Oz episode 1035.
[3] For more information on Matilda Joslyn Gage visit The
Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation at
www.matildajoslyngage.org
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