It seems that I meet people all the time and they all eventually get around to asking you where you are from. When I say I am from Kansas...9 times out of 10, they say, "oh, like Dorothy." "Yes...like Dorothy," I say. I wonder how many people wouldn't know about Kansas at all if it weren't for that movie...so I guess I should thank Mr. Baum. Being associated with the movie is sort of interesting. It came out in 1939, the same year as Gone with the Wind. A big year for the cinema! Anyway, back to Dorothy and the tornado that carries her away to the land of Oz. Already, Kansas is seen as dreary. I didn't live in a black and white town, but it wasn't technicolor either. The movie's portrayal of a tornado forever scarred me however--I am absolutely terrified of them and have nightmares about them all of the time. In this case, it seems that the tornado served as the key element in Dorothy's sojourn to Oz. She spends the entire movie searching for something she already has. It seems that that is a popular message. Isn't that what Frank Capra wanted George Bailey to understand? In "It's a Wonderful Life,"Clarence shows George what life would be like without him. George and Dorothy both realize not to take those around them for granted and how incredible their lives actually are. It seems that people really need a wake up call. Same thing in A Christmas Carol. Scrooge has to see the pain and suffering he causes to finally figure out what an ass he is. The Grinch has to come face to face with ultimate kindess to make his heart grow. Let's see...who else needs help figuring this stuff out? Harry has to lose Sally before he realizes she is the one he wants to spend the rest of his life with. The hair band "Cinderella" has it down, "Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone." Isn't that the shits? The 80's had a ball with this concept. "St. Elmo's Fire," "About Last Night" and "She's Having a Baby" all had characters that needed the painful episodes of either one leaving or the idea that one could die that make them snap back into shape. A great example of not only figuring out what you had, but going out and making changes in order to show growth as a person to the other is "Something's Got to Give." I'm not going to detail these movies...if you want to understand, watch them.
Why am I writing about this? Guess I just got on a tangent because of the whole Dorothy-Kansas thing. Thanks GOD she had those slippers, huh? Man, that could have been a bitch. Why were her pals looking for a heart, a brain and the "noyve"? (that's "nerve" for those who haven't seen the movie.) Never quite got that. I was a film major and still I don't get it. I guess if I really thought about it, I'd understand...however, I DID find a very interesting tidbit on the internet (wish I'd come up with it) that I'll share with you in regards to the film:
An interesting sidenote: the plot of The Wizard of Oz has often been used, rightly or wrongly, as a Parable on Populism in the Gilded Age, to explain the political situation at the time of its writing, including the 1896 Presidential election, and the turn-of-the-century Populist movement. Here are a few of the allegorical connections, most of which were originally recognized by Henry M. Littlefield, and published in the American Quarterly in 1967:
- the Scarecrow - the wise, but naive western farmers
- the Tin Woodman - the dehumanized, Eastern factory workers
- the Wicked Witch of the East - the Eastern industrialists and bankers who controlled the people (the Munchkins)
- the Good Witch of the North - New England, a stronghold of Populists
- the Good Witch of the South - the South, another Populist area
- the Wizard - President Grover Cleveland, or Republican Presidential candidate William McKinley
- the Cowardly Lion - Democratic-Populist Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan
- Dorothy - a young Mary Lease; or the good-natured American people
- Dorothy's silver shoes - represents the 'silver standard' (acc. to the Populists, "the free and unlimited coinage of silver")
- Toto - the 'teetotaling' Prohibitionists (or Temperance Party), an important part of the 'silverite' coalition
- the Yellow Brick road - the 'gold standard' - paved with gold, but leads nowhere
- the land of Oz - oz. is the standard abbreviation for ounce, in accordance with the other symbolism
- Emerald City - Washington, D.C., with a greenish color associated with greenbacks
- the Poppy field - the threat of anti-imperialism
So far, this blog has had no particular rhyme or reason to it. Sorry about that. Think of it as my Faulkneresque way of linking my thoughts together upon hearing of my direct association with Dorothy and her wild goose chase of trying to find the better things in life by hooking up with friends, going into the unknown, stopping to get high and then finally realizing that the entire trip was just a dream...leading her right back where she started.
....wait a minute.
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