Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Wonderful Wizard of Oz

  • Submitted By: llxxkelxxll
  • Date Submitted: 02/23/2009 11:29 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 911
  • Page: 4
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The Commercially Driven Oz

Stuart Culver analyzes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and in his article believes that L. Frank Baum is connecting his characters to the commercially driven desires of society. He supposes that children enjoy the fairy tale because it is manifestly unreal. He thinks that people have an inevitable desire for objects that are clearly imaginary. Frank Baum worked briefly as an editor for The Show Window, which is a journal for window dressers and promotes the window-shopper’s desires. A shopper that simply looks at something, but never actually acquires it.
Culver relates the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow to mannequins in a store window that represent the consumers desires. These “mannequins” want to complete their bodies with a heart and a brain, and these fantasized desires lead them to the Emerald City, a city driven by consumers. The people wear green spectacles which turn everything in Emerald City into the color of money, while they engage in endless business. The constant buying and selling is simply to fulfill an unobtainable desire. The Wizard of Oz knows this and makes the citizens content with the appearance of this impossible belief and desire for everything green. After Toto knocks over the screen and reveals the true Oz, he is forced to tell that the Emerald City is a hoax. His fellow citizens continue to wear the spectacles and desire for this green value, even after he is revealed. For example, the Scarecrow desires to have a brain, as the Cowardly Lion desires courage. Even after discovering that the Oz is a fraud with no powers, they take the objects and believe to be fulfilled with the goods they were given. The Tin Woodman wants a heart and upon getting it, believes he is complete but forgets what he wished it would do for him. This relates Baum’s fantasy stories, to real life, because of his commitment to consumers. He needs to satisfy a child’s desire for the unreal, an object that is fantasy, and just an...

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