Amy Shanks

The Wizard of Oz as a Utopian Tale

Topic selection has always been a challenge for me; however, the problem I ran into for the research posting was unique because the difficult part is usually generating a topic/idea that interests me. With this assignment, I found a plethora of ideas I was interested in, but I just had a difficult time settling with one idea.  I appreciate the instances in graduate school where the courses’ content has taken my knowledge, experience, and understanding and drastically expanded, and at times, completely altered them. For my topic I chose to research The Wizard of Oz as a utopia tale. Though I was only familiar with the movie (which I’ve learned was quite a departure from the novel), discovering the title of the book on the course web page’s utopian literature list surprised me. Of course, once I started mentally comparing the film adaptation to the works we have read and the characteristics we have discussed, this classification made sense; but it was still a connection I felt like I wouldn’t have made on my own, which further fueled my desire to research the idea.  An additional driving force for my topic selection was that the novel is an optional part of my school’s senior curriculum (in conjunction with the novel Wicked), therefore a title I might use later in my profession. My question for the research posting is to discover how The Wizard of Oz fits into the mold of utopian literature.

I began my search with online journals. Though I checked out books and did some web searching, the academic journals provided the most useful information. A basic novel title search yielded numerous articles, so most of my time was spent perusing and using discernment with the articles rather than having to frantically excavate for articles related to my topic.  One of the most germane, informative articles I found was Jerry Griswold’s “There’s No Place but Home: The Wizard of Oz.” Focusing his research on the analogous elements of Baum’s novel to the social issues of the author’s time, Griswold depicts the ways in which the novel exemplifies the characteristics of a utopian tale. Another great article I discovered was Douglas Street’s “The Wonderful Wiz That Was: The Curious Transformation of The Wizard of Oz.” While the article’s focus was comparing and contrasting the film adaptation with the novel, to say that was the only topic it discussed would be an inaccurate summation. “Introduction” and “Critical Essay on ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” were the two other articles I found resourceful.

A general critique of the utopian literature we’ve read in class is that the works have been heavily didactic, at times even sacrificing possible opportunities for character and plot development. Utopian literature places an emphasis on the communal aspects of the characters within the society (often contrasting with exploratory outsiders), at times prioritizing setting elements for plot development.  In his article, Griswold introduces a common critique of the novel, summarizing, “Scholars have, in general, viewed Oz as a utopian dream... an exemplification of the ideas of such utopian thinkers as William Morris and Edward Bellamy” (Griswold 463). Supporting a utopian reading of the novel, Griswold states, “The land of Oz is certainly one of the most memorable things (about the novel)” (462). For a novel geared toward children with characters like the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion and winged monkeys, this summation was a bit of a surprise to me. However, much of the research I encountered contended that the crux of the story was the development of the setting, reasoning that,  “Baum was creating a personal mythology, although intended for children, in which many truths of the world could be expressed” (Hearn 12).  While postulating that the ideals of America at the time which Baum was writing were likely to have influenced the novel, Griswold delineates the utopian characteristics the novel posses stating, “scholars have pointed to the heavenly ideals of Oz: freedom of the individual, voluntary acceptance of responsibility, the equal enjoyment of work and play, the follow of war, the need for sharing and so forth” (463).  Using the novel’s reception as further evidence, Griswold explains that after the novel was released, “children wrote Baum to ask how they might buy tickets to travel to that marvelous place; and when readers demanded more from Baum, they did not ask for more “Dorothy books,” but for more books about Oz” (462).  Griswold contends that because the world Baum created strongly focused on exploring and explaining a Utopian society, the characters he created become overshadowed by the creation of the community.

The juxtaposition of the utopian with the dystopian society seems to be an inescapable plot point in utopian literature.  Comparing Julian West’s impoverished-oppressing 19^th century and the misogynistic origins of Van, Terry, and Jeff, Douglas Street observes how Baum’s depiction of Dorothy’s origin, “paints a harsh world where laughter is rare, singing infrequent, and rainbows nonexistent; where a storm cellar is nothing more elaborate than a “small, dark hole” in the ground, and cyclones actually do pick up houses and transport them to Oz” (94). Many of the articles I read not only discussed the stark contrast of Dorothy’s pre-Oz dystopian existence in the novel, but also made the interesting observation of how the film adaptation highlighted this contrast by depicting her home life in black and white and Oz in color.

Another structural element that characterizes utopian literature is the journey. Several of the articles I read identified these two common utopian characteristics in The Wizard of Oz.  In her article “Critical Essay on ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’” Bussey suggests that, “Dorothy’s journey lies at the center of the novel”(2).  Street specifies the journey postulating, “Baum’s creation centers on Dorothy’s attempts to return home...on her compulsory trek to the red-hued land of the Quadlings and the castle of Glinda the Good”(95).

One of the parts of the assignment that I have enjoyed the most (though perhaps it was also one of the most difficult) was the unique approach to research it forced me to take.  Because I have a literature background, a significant portion of my research experience has been in the realm of literary analysis; however, for this assignment I had not even read the book before researching what critics said about it. At first it was very disconcerting because it almost felt as though I were a guilty student who had not done a reading assignment for class.  It wasn’t until after I had done preliminary research that I even had a copy of the novel.  Reading the novel with specific preconceived interpretations running through my head was a unique experience for me.  Though I did not have the time to finish the novel yet, the desire to analyze the rest of the text with the ideas I discovered through research is irresistible.

To simply end research, close the book or log off the laptop, and merely feel content that your work is done is in my opinion the antithesis of the nature of research. I feel most successful if at the end of my research I feel I have gained new knowledge that perpetuates a curiosity and desire to delve into answering new questions that continually build and expand the acquired knowledge. One of the interesting facts I came across was that Baum declared his novel to be a “modernized fairy tale" (Griswold 463), enticing me to possibly do my second research posting on the relationship between fairy tales and utopias.

Works Cited 

Bussey, Jennifer. "Critical Essay on 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'." Novels for Students. Ed. Elizabeth Thomason. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 June 2011.

Griswold, Jerry. "There's No Place but Home: The Wizard of Oz." Antioch Review 45.4 (Fall 1987): 462-475. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 132. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 June 2011.

Hearn, Michael Patrick. "Introduction." The Annotated Wizard of Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1973. 11-81. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Gerard J. Senick. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 June 2011.

Street, Douglas. "The Wonderful Wiz That Was: The Curious Transformation of The Wizard of Oz." Kansas Quarterly 16.3 (Summer 1984): 91-98. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol. 132. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 June 2011.