Story · The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A Cyclone, a Yellow Brick Road and Three Unlikely Friends
Dorothy's journey toward the Emerald City, the friends she meets on the way, and the world that shaped L. Frank Baum's story.
A small farmhouse on the gray Kansas prairie is lifted whole by a cyclone and set down in a strange land. That is how The Wonderful Wizard of Oz begins. L. Frank Baum published it in 1900, hoping to give American children a fairy tale of their own, full of wonder rather than fright.
From gray to color
Dorothy lives on the wide prairie with Aunt Em, Uncle Henry and her little dog Toto. Baum paints everything around her gray: the house, the sun-baked land and even the tired faces of the grown-ups, who have forgotten how to laugh. It is a picture of hard farm life on the American plains.
Then the cyclone carries Dorothy to the country of the Munchkins, a place of green grass, flowers and sparkling streams. Her house happens to land on the Wicked Witch of the East, who had been tormenting the Munchkins, and they welcome Dorothy as a hero. She is given the witch's silver shoes. Many people picture them as red, because the famous 1939 film changed their color, but in the book they are silver.
Friends on the road
Dorothy wants to go home, and she is told that only the great Wizard of Oz can help her. So she sets off along the road of yellow brick toward the Emerald City. On the way she meets three companions: a Scarecrow who longs for brains because his head is stuffed with straw, a Tin Woodman who wants a heart, and a Lion who is ashamed of being a coward. Each joins her in hope of having his own wish granted.
Something curious happens as they travel. The Scarecrow who has no brains keeps coming up with clever plans. The Tin Woodman who has no heart accidentally steps on a beetle and is so upset that he weeps until his jaw rusts shut. The cowardly Lion steps forward and roars when his friends are in danger. Readers begin to suspect that each of them already has some of what he is searching for.
Words and pictures together
The book was filled with pictures by the illustrator W. W. Denslow, printed in several colors at a time when that was still unusual for a children's book. Words and images worked side by side to build the land of Oz. The book was a hit, and Baum went on to write many more Oz stories.
A question to think about
The Scarecrow believes he has no brains, yet he thinks his way through trouble, and the Tin Woodman believes he has no heart, yet he cries over a single beetle. Still, they feel they cannot truly have these qualities until someone in authority grants them. In our own time, people often judge each other's abilities by diplomas, certificates and test scores.
What might a society miss when it measures wisdom, kindness or courage mainly through official papers and numbers? And what would help a person recognize the good in themselves before anyone else confirms it?