Wizard Of Oz Symbolism

Michael Mangal 10/27/14
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a fictional adventure novel that was written by L. Frank Baum in 1902. This novel is about a young girl named Dorothy who was trying to find her way back home to Kansas after ending up in the World of Oz. However this girl’s journey was much more than a fantastical adventure, but symbolism for the Populist Party of this time period. The story is said to represents political and social issues during the 1890’s. Dorothy was meant to represent the majority. She was a symbol of the everyday man or woman. Her home was in Kansas, which during the time was a populist state due to the high population of farmers. The yellow brick road represented the gold that the United States currency

During the 1890’s the powerful businessmen lived in either the east (New York) or the west. Dorothy meets a ‘party’ of people on her journey including a scarecrow, lion, and tin man. The scarecrow represented the farmers, the tin man represented industrial workers and the cowardly lion was said to represent the American military. The most interesting symbolism to me was the Wizard of Oz himself. In the story the wizard was only a man who tricked people into believing he was a powerful man who could grant them their wishes. In reality he was simply a man behind the curtain who had no power at all. The wizard represented powerful politicians and bankers. In my opinion, I believe that the wizard in the story represented the Gilded Age as a whole. The wizard was a sign of hope for Dorothy. Dorothy travels on the golden road to meet the wizard and finds out he is not powerful at all. Dorothy realizes that there is no such thing as a wizard who can grant her wishes but rather she must get home on her own. I believe the wizard represents the Gilded Age because on the outside the wizard was a powerful man who can lead Dorothy home when he really was nothing more than a