The Characters of Oz: Essays on Their Adaptation and Transformation

by Dina Schiff Massachi (Editor/contributor), Mark I. West (Contributor), Katharine Kittredge (Contributor)

When L. Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , he created an American myth that has endured the test of time. Echoes of Dorothy and her friends are popular television shows often have an Oz episode, novelists borrow character types and echo familiar scenes, and every media--from Broadway to The Muppets--has some variation or continuation of Baum's work. This collection of essays follows Baum's archetypal characters as they've changed over time in order to examine what those changes mean in relation to Oz, American culture and basic human truths. Essays also serve as a bridge between academia and fandom, with contributors representing a cross-section of Oz scholarship from backgrounds including The International Wizard of Oz Club and the Children's Literature Association.

196 pages, Paperback

Published July 20, 2023

Reviews

[Nathan Dehoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of essays by different authors, some of whom I know personally, discusses various Oz characters and how they've been used over time, both in the books themselves and in later media and popular culture. Mark I. West talks about Dorothy and her role as a traditional hero, and how the MGM movie made her less heroic and more passive. Katharine Kittredge discusses how the Scarecrow, the first normally inanimate being to be shown as alive in Oz, became more autonomous and social over time, and how darker interpretations show his natural curiosity as a bad thing. Dina's first contribution is about the Tin Woodman and his emotional intelligence, and how he shows both traditional male and female roles. One of the few later adaptations that she thinks demonstrates this characterization is Todrick Hall's Straight Outta Oz. Dee Michel and James Satter's take on the Cowardly Lion also examines gender roles, in that lions are typically seen as symbols of aggressive masculinity, while this one is meek and gentle. MGM's Lion (not the one in the logo) is specifically portrayed as stereotypically gay and a sissy by his own admission. Of Dorothy's three Ozian companions, he's the one who's changed the most from the book, yet the essay points out that a fair amount of the dialogue from the first meeting with him made it into the movie. While I'm sure the flamboyant characterization was largely done for the humor, it's also noteworthy that L. Frank Baum's Lion is said to be particularly big and strong even compared to others of his kind and to have an intimidating roar, things which can't really come across so well from a guy in a lion suit. J.L. Bell addresses the morality of the Wizard of Oz, how he initially seems correct in referring to himself as "a very good man," despite his lies and tricks, and perhaps even more so his sending a little girl off to face a Wicked Witch. But in the original stage play, he's a villain who exiles the King of Oz, and hints of this characterization make it into The Marvelous Land of Oz. When he returns to Dorothy and the Wizard, he's back to being a mostly good guy. There's also the question of whether his becoming a real wizard removes his contradictory characterization. Robert B. Luehrs discusses how the witches of Oz incorporate traits that had come to be seen as traditionally witchy, but also go against some of the common Christian beliefs of Baum's day, and how he might have been influenced by his mother-in-law's writing on witches and magic. Dina's second entry is about the Winged Monkeys, and how Baum wrote them as unwilling slaves of the Golden Cap, but adaptations would link them more explicitly with the Wicked Witch of the West and suggest that they're serving her by choice, and make them scarier to boot. Walter Squire talks about Glinda as a maternal figure for Dorothy, a role Aunt Em was unable to fulfill, although she becomes much more loving toward her in later books. MGM exacerbated this by showing Aunt Em as unwilling to listen to Dorothy and stand up for her. Squire also points out how MGM's Glinda demonstrates performative femininity, and appears dainty and scatterbrained but is still very powerful. And there's a look at how Miss Piggy portrays all four witches in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz. Mary Lenard ties Ozma and other female rulers in Oz to the fight for women's suffrage, in a time when that was considered a pretty radical idea. It's interesting that Baum himself wrote that women in government would create a "pure and just political policy," which is something he tries to show with Ozma, who rules with kindness. But, as the essay points out, he also shows female rulers who aren't at all kind, like the Queen of the Scoodlers and Coo-ee-oh. And I hadn't really thought about how Mrs. Yoop and Reera the Red can be seen as being selfish in their domesticity, not using their powers to help others. Lenard also addresses how Baum shows that government should rely on the consent of the governed, as Matilda Joslyn Gage also argued, while also making Ozma an absolute monarch. But that kind of thing is possible in fantasy. Paige Gray writes about how Jack Pumpkinhead is an essentially American character, and addresses the significance of pumpkins as well as the potential influence from Nathaniel Hawthorn's "Feathertop." She says that Jack is unnatural, but also comfortably familiar. Shannon Murphy's essay on Jinjur makes an argument for the importance of her army fighting with knitting needles, and references how knitting has historically been used in feminist activism. She points out how Danielle Paige explicitly sexualized the army and had them use actual guns, which changes quite a bit. Angelica Shirley Carpenter examines the Nome King as a character who deserves more recognition, and as both a childish, humorous villain and a masculine tyrant in opposition to Ozma's benevolent femininity. Finally, Gita Dorothy Morena, Baum's great-granddaughter, writes of her own attachment to the Patchwork Girl, a strong-willed woman who values freedom. I wasn't familiar with all of the later media discussed in the essays, but that didn't hinder me that much.