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For many years Western farmers had been in a state of loud, though unsuccessful, revolt. While Baum was living in South Dakota not only was the frontier a thing of the past, but the Romantic view of benign nature had disappeared we well. The stark reality of the dry, open plains and the acceptance of man's Darwinian subservience to his environment served to crush Romantic idealism

Baum's stay in South Dakota also covered the period of the formation of the Populist party, which Professor Nye likens to a fanatic "crusade".

Western farmers had for a long time sought governmental aid in the form of economic panaceas, but to no avail. The Populist movement symbolized a desperate attempt to use the power of the ballot[8].

Moreover, he took part in the pivotal election of 1896, marching in "torch-light parades for William Jennings Bryan"

could have been unaffected by Bryan's campaign. Putting all the farmers' hopes in a basket labeled "free coinage of silver," Bryan's platform rested mainly on the issue of adding silver to the nation's gold standard. Though he lost, he did at least bring the plight of the little man into national focus[11].

Nevertheless, Professor Nye quotes Baum as having a desire to write stories that would "bear the stamp of our times and depict the progressive fairies of today.

Yet the original Oz book conceals an unsuspected depth

children's story with a symbolic allegory implicit within its story line and characterizations

subtle parable, Baum delineated a Midwesterner's vibrant and ironic portrait of this country as it entered the twentieth century.

orothy, who was an orphan

Dorothy's house has come down on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her

Notice that evil ruled in both the East and the West; after Dorothy's coming it rules only in the West.

The Wicked Witch of the East had kept the little Munchkin people "in bondage for many years, making them slave for her night and day.

In this way Eastern witchcraft dehumanized a simple laborer so that the faster and better he worked the more quickly he became a kind of machine. Here is a Populist view of evil Eastern influences on honest labor which could hardly be more pointed.

There is one thing seriously wrong with being made of tin; when it rains rust sets in.

Tin Woodman had been standing in the same position for a year without moving before Dorothy came along and oiled his joints

he Tin Woodman's situation has an obvious parallel in the condition of many Eastern workers after the depression of 1893

While Tin Woodman is standing still, rusted solid, he deludes himself into thinking he is no longer capable of that most human of sentiments, love

the country is divided in a very orderly fashion. In the North and South the people are ruled by good witches, who are not quite as powerful as the wicked ones of the East and West

Emerald City ruled by the Wizard of Oz

Dorothy is Baum's Miss Everyman

Dorothy sets out on the Yellow Brick Road wearing the Witch of the East's magic Silver Shoes

Silver shoes walking on a golden road

orothy becomes the innocent agent of Baum's ironic view of the Silver issue.

neither Dorothy, nor the good Witch of the North, nor the Munchkins understand the power of these shoes. The allegory is abundantly clear

William Allen White wrote an article in 1896 entitled "What's the Matter With Kansas?". In it he accused Kansas farmers of ignorance, irrationality and general muddle-headedness.

the Scarecrow displays a terrible sense of inferiority and self doubt, for he has determined that he needs real brains to replace the common straw in his head

the Cowardly Lion

As King of Beasts he explains, "I learned that if I roared very loudly every living thing was frightened and got out of my way."

Born a coward, he sobs, "Whenever there is danger my heart begins to beat fast

The Lion represents Bryan himself

In the election of 1896 Bryan lost the vote of Eastern Labor, though he tried hard to gain their support.

"struck at the Tin Woodman with his sharp claws." But, to his surprise, "he could make no impression on the tin, although the Woodman fell over in the road and lay still.

Baum here refers to the fact that in 1896 workers were often pressured into voting for McKinley and gold by their employers.

The magic Silver Shoes belong to Dorothy

ilver's potent charm, which had come to mean so much to so many in the Midwest, could not be entrusted to a political symbol

All together now the small party moves toward the Emerald City. Coxey's Army of tramps and indigents, marching to ask President Cleveland for work in 1894, appears no more naively innocent than this group of four characters going to see a humbug Wizard, to request favors that only the little girl among them deserves.

Those who enter the Emerald City must wear green glasses

The Wizard, a little bumbling old man, hiding behind a facade of paper mache and noise, might be any president from Grant to McKinley

he symbolizes the American criterion for leadership -- he is able to be everything to everybody.

the Wizard assumes different shapes, representing different views toward national leadership. To Dorothy he appears as an enormous head, "bigger than the head of the biggest giant

The Wizard has asked them all to kill the Witch of the West

he golden road does not go in that direction and so they must follow the sun, as have many pioneers in the past

The Witch of the West uses natural forces to achieve her ends; she is Baum's version of sentient and malign nature.

Baum makes these Winged Monkeys into an Oz substitute for the plains Indians.

Baum's monkeys are not inherently bad; their actions depend wholly upon the bidding of others. Under the control of an evil influence, they do evil. Under the control of goodness and innocence, as personified by Dorothy, the monkeys are helpful and kind, although unable to take her to Kansas. Says the Monkey King, "We belong to this country alone, and cannot leave it" (p. 213). The same could be said with equal truth of the first Americans.

The Witch assumes that proportions of a kind of western Mark Hanna or Banker Boss, who, through natural malevolence, manipulates the people and holds them prisoner by cynically taking advantage of their innate innocence.

Dorothy destroys the evil Witch by angrily dousing her with a bucket of water. Water, that precious commodity which the drought-ridden farmers on the great plains needed so badly, and which if correctly used could create an agricultural paradise, or at least dissolve a wicked witch.

What a wonderful lesson for youngsters of the decade when Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland and William McKinley were hiding in the White House.

Formerly the Wizard was a mimic, a ventriloquist and a circus balloonist

our little Wizard comes from Omaha, Nebraska, a center of Populist agitation

Current historiography tends to criticize the Populist movement for its "delusions, myths and foibles

Their desires, as well as the Wizard's cleverness in answering them, are all self-delusion. Each of these characters carries within him the solution to his own problem, were he only to view himself objectively.

Like any good politician he gives the people what they want

hroughout the story Baum poses a central thought; the American desire for symbols of fulfillment is illusory. Real needs lie elsewhere.

In this way Baum tells us that the Silver crusade at least brought back Dorothy's lovely spirit to the disconsolate plains farmer. Her laughter, love and good will are no small addition to that gray land, although the magic of Silver has been lost forever as a result.

Thereby farm interests achieve national importance, industrialism moves West and Bryan commands only a forest full of lesser politicians.