According to Taylor, “Quite simply, Oz operates on two levels, one literal and puerile, the other symbolic and political.”
While scholars have questioned whether Baum ever intended his story to be satire, historians like Quentin Taylor still find enough parallels to argue that the book is a deliberate work of political symbolism. Littlefield sets his reading against the backdrop of the late 19th Century debate over US monetary policy in subsequent interpretations, the Emerald City symbolises ‘greenback’ paper money that has no real value, instead obtaining its value from a shared illusion. In his essay, Littlefield writes, “The Wizard of Oz has neither the mature religious appeal of a Pilgrim’s Progress, nor the philosophic depth of a Candide… Yet the original Oz book conceals an unsuspected depth.” The rusted Tin Man, stuck in the same position for a year before Dorothy oils his joints, has parallels with US industry after the depression of 1893 the Scarecrow reflects the Kansas farmer as viewed by outsiders, needing a brain to replace the straw in his head the Cowardly Lion is William Jennings Bryan, who campaigned to be US president at the turn of the 20th Century and advocated a standard of both silver and gold to replace the gold standard (in Baum’s book, Dorothy’s slippers are silver, not ruby). In this reading – snappily entitled a ‘parable on Populism’ – the Yellow Brick Road represents the gold standard, and the Wicked Witch of the East stands for industrialists and bankers on the US east coast who control the people (the Munchkins). Historian Henry M Littlefield’s essay on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1964.
0 kommentar(er)
