What is the true story behind The Wizard of Oz?

As conceived and written by Lyman Frank Baum in 1900, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was a political allegory of turn-of-the-century America. Written in the waning days of the Populist movement of the late 1800s, it was the story of the sad collapse of Populism and the issues upon which the movement was based.
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What is the real forgotten meaning of The Wizard of Oz?

Many economists and historians insist that the book is a political allegory. In their telling, each character represents a person or group active in the late 1800s. The scarecrow represents the farmers in the west. most of these farmers had mortgages and owed money to the bankers in the east.
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What is the deeper meaning of The Wizard of Oz?

A Parable on Populism (and American Monetary Policy)

This popular and well-documented reading sees The Wizard of Oz as being about the collapse of the Populist Movement in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.
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What are the horrors of the original Wizard of Oz?

The pipe, fitted to look like a broomstick, exploded during filming, sending Danko to the hospital for 11 days and scarring her legs permanently. Additionally, Margaret Hamilton's copper-based makeup was highly toxic and her green complexion took months to fade.
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What does the yellow brick road symbolize in The Wizard of Oz?

The Yellow Brick Road represents strategy—how you will get there; the path you identify as the best, smartest way to accomplish your goal. And each of the shiny yellow bricks in the road represents an action step—the smaller tactics that go into executing your strategy.
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Disturbing Horrors Behind The Wizard of Oz That'll RUIN Your Childhood • EWU Story Time

What does the Wicked Witch of the East represent?

The Witch represents eastern financial-industrial interests and their gold-standard political allies, the main targets of Populist venom.
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What are the hidden symbols in The Wizard of Oz?

Some specific symbols related to the political allegory are:
  • Dorothy's silver shoes (money or silver)
  • Emerald City (money or factory)
  • Yellow brick road (gold)
  • Kansas and farmland (commoners and populism)
  • Tin Man (industrialism and factory workers)
  • The Wizard (selfish acts of political leaders or elites)
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What is the disturbing scene in the Wizard of Oz?

One of the creepiest moments in the entire movie is when Miss Gulch, Dorothy's nemesis in Kansas, transforms into the Wicked Witch on her broom. It's a powerful moment for the girl and for those in the audience, as it shows just how far she has ventured from the world she thought she knew.
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Was the Wizard of Oz book dark?

Some parts of the story could be considered horrific: A famous example is the origin of the Tin Man, who hacked off his limbs and replaced them with tin until he became as we know him in the movie. But again, it's not as if Baum goes into great detail of the blood and gore.
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What do the silver slippers symbolize in The Wizard of Oz?

Dorothy's silver shoes were seen by economic historians as crucial to the symbolic associations between the story and the politics of the moment. These articles described the story in terms of the bimetal debates. In representing silver, Dorothy is seen to represent the populist movement.
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What does ruby slippers represent in The Wizard of Oz?

In the movie, the slippers represent the little guy's ability to triumph over powerful forces. As the item that she – a simple teenage farm girl from Kansas – steals from the dictatorial Wicked Witch and ultimately uses to liberate the oppressed people of Oz, they're nothing less than a symbol of revolution.
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What did the lion scarecrow and Tinman represent?

We all know the story of Dorothy's quest to find her way home and the three unlikely characters who she meets along the yellow brick road: the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Tin Man. Each of these characters represents a virtue that Dorothy needs for her journey back home: brains, courage, and heart.
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What do the flying monkeys represent in The Wizard of Oz?

Winged Monkeys. According to some writers, the Winged Monkeys of Oz represent Native Americans in the West in the late 1800s. Baum himself had clear attitudes toward American Indians and some of his earlier writings about Indians are very similar to his descriptions of the Winged Monkeys found in Oz.
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What song was deleted from The Wizard of Oz?

The Jitterbug, Over the Rainbow (Reprise), Hail Hail the Witch is Dead, and The Merry Old Land of Oz (Reprise) were all cut from the final film.
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What does the Good Witch of the North represent?

The Good Witch of the North represents northern workers, and the Good Witch of the South represents southern farmers. This provides a contrast between wicked industrialists from the west with the railroad moguls in the west.
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Was Oz just a dream?

She eventually lands in Oz but by the movie's end, she wakes up in her bed with her family surrounding her. This reassures the viewer that the whole ordeal was simply a dream. In the book, however, there is no dream. Dorothy, Toto, and their home are all swept up by a cyclone and dropped into the magical Land of Oz.
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Is The Wizard of Oz based on a dream?

Answer and Explanation: L. Frank Baum's children's classic book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is not a dream. It is merely a fantasy in which the book's protagonist, Dorothy from Kansas, is swept away in a cyclone.
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Was The Wizard of Oz movie a dream?

In the movie of The Wizard of Oz, it is quite obvious that Oz is a dream; Dorothy wakes up in the end in the very same house that she flew in to Oz, surrounded by people who saw her sleeping the whole time. Many of these people took part in her dream as different characters, which is a fairly common feature of dreams.
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What does Emerald City represent?

the Emerald City represented Wall Street, greenback colored; and. the Wizard represented the Money Power, whose influence rests on manipulation and illusion.
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Why did The Wizard of Oz hide behind the curtain?

The Wizard created a powerful illusion of himself, meant to push away others and demonstrate control. Terrifying! Until the smallest of the group, Toto, pulls back the curtain to find a small man, with microphone in hand conducting the show, including the special effects. The illusion is exposed.
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What is each person missing in Wizard of Oz?

The Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion each have a “missing” characteristic that motivates them to travel with Dorothy to the Wizard of Oz- the Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin Woodman wishes for a heart, and the Cowardly Lion yearns for courage.
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Who was the witch crushed by Dorothy's house?

The Wicked Witch of the East was featured in the film The Wizard of Oz (1939), in which she is the sister of the Wicked Witch of the West. As in the book, she is killed when Dorothy's house falls on her. The Wicked Witch of the West was not pleased with Dorothy for the death of her sister.
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Who are the 4 witches of Oz?

The Wiz: All four witches remain, but they get new names. The Wicked Witch of the East becomes Evvamean, the Good Witch of the North becomes Addaperle ("Miss One" in the movie version) and the Wicked Witch of the West becomes Evillene, while Glinda gets to keep her name.
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Is The Wizard of Oz politically correct?

While the Wizard of Oz is not known for being a political film, the story certain contains political, economic, and social undertones of events that took place in the 1890s. Another theory claims that the Wizard of Oz is a metaphor for life's journey and coming of age.
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Why didn t the winged monkeys harm Dorothy?

The monkeys refused to harm Dorothy because she had the mark on her forehead left from where the Good Witch had kissed her.)
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