Money and Politics History

Money and Politics - History

There has been massive debate on what Frank Baum's actual intentions were when he authored the famous 'Wizard of Oz' story tale. In the tale, Dorothy of Kansas traverses the land and the golden roads therein, in silver shoes. In so doing, she comes across a number of friendly and unfriendly, influential and powerless figures. At first, the tale was considered just that - a children's tale. However, deeper investigations revealed that the story was more than just a tale. Baum favored the Republican Party, and had made use of imagery to depict Kansas' negative political image which the rival Populists, who dominated the area then, had created. The images used in the tale, and the political aspects they have been interpreted to represent are listed below.

Dorothy's dull relatives: used to show the dull, unproductive, and uninhabitable nature of Kansas at the time, as characterized by the severe winters, droughts and grasshopper invasions.

The twister: the cyclone of populists that hit Kansas in the 1890s.

Toto (Dorothy's companion): Dorothy represents the prohibitionists, and Toto, the populists. The idea is to show the manner in which the prohibitionists blindly, and without question, followed the populists.

The Munchkins Witch: Due to her powers, she mistreats the Munchkins and uses them as slaves. People are liberated and rejoice at her death. She represents the selfish Populist administrators, who sought to satisfy their personal gains, at the expense of the local Kansas community.

Silver Shoes: The Munchkins were ignorant of the great fortune that came with the silver shoes. Similarly, the locals were exploited due to their ignorance on money matters. They were made to believe that gold and silver were responsible for their misfortunes.