OZ and Transition
The Wizard of Oz provides Americans with a text that helps them make the transition from the country to the city and sets the stage for the commodified American popular culture of the 20th century. This paper will show how, thanks to its pristine (Emerald) beauty and adventurous episodes, Oz makes "the city" much more appealing than the muted, old-fashioned of America. It will also explain why Dorothy returns to Kansas (someone has to take back home the message of how amazing "the city" is).
Baum's Oz shows that everyman can become a king if he pursues his own desires: thus, the Scarecrow is awarded leadership over the Emerald City, the Tinman leadership over Winkie County, and the Cowardly Lion kingship over the forest. Each character, of course, rises to meet his own personal challenge -- but, nonetheless, these are clear examples of how the American Dream is perfectly attainable in one's own life if one just determines to set off in search of it.
With the Industrialization of America, this Dream seemed more possible than ever. At the end of the 19th century, America had faced several banking crises, its people were picking up the pieces after the horrors of the previous generation's Civil War, and new wars (foreign ones) loomed on the horizon (for example the Spanish-American War and the advent of American Imperialism). America as a nation had changed and was changing still more: it was being urbanized as more individuals (migrants) moved to the big cities to find work and monopolists like Rockefeller consolidated power. The big bankers would make their gambit for total control of the nation's money supply (and win) in 1913 with the passing of the Federal Reserve Act: in a sense, these men were like the mighty Wizard of Oz -- hucksters posing as men of brilliance (but the promise of free and easy credit after WWI coupled with a scofflaw attitude thanks to Prohibition made the 20s a "Roaring" time indeed -- a boom that ended in a bust). In one way, Baum's Wizard of Oz helped prepare the way for these changes and certainly helped Americans transition from the country to the city (Dorothy, for example, is the farm girl from Kansas who is swept off to Oz where she makes wonderful friends and has fantastic adventures). Baum's American fairy-tale also prepares the way for the commodification of 20th century popular culture by suggesting that abstract ideas like "courage," "brains," and "heart" can be bought and sold by powerful elites (wizards, bankers, corporations) who "magically" know how to produce them for the average citizen who lacks them.
Baum's book was published in 1900; in 1902 the Broadway musical adaptation was produced; and in 1939 the film version was released: thus, there is a forty year span from the time that Oz was first introduced to the time that it became translated into one of the most iconic films of all time. The transformation marked the transformation that the nation itself had undergone, as its "brains," "courage," and "heart" were invariably tested by episodes like the Great Depression or WW1 and WW2. Movements like the Harlem Renaissance also helped to shape the way that Oz was perceived from one generation to the next, as a more dynamic and exciting version (film) replaced the old print medium.
But if the "City" is so wonderful and magnificent, why is it that Dorothy still longs for home and eventually returns to Kansas? The answer actually has two parts: just as the artists of the Harlem Renaissance (and, later, of the Hip Hop era) sought to identify themselves by their roots (rather than by the white establishment culture that they felt to be forced upon them) (Rose, pp. 271-275), Dorothy is compelled by a sense of nativity and homestead identity to want to return to her place of native origin, which is Kansas. The other side of the answer has to do with the fantasy world that is "the big city" and the "American Dream." On this level, Baum is returning the reader to his own "home," by taking him out of the fairy-tale world and restoring him, in a sense, to reality -- or Kansas (small town America). The Emerald City is wondrous, to be sure, and the adventures were great -- but there is an element of make-believe to it all that conflicts with the down to earth...
North American Literature of the 20th Century: A Literature of Alienation North American literature of the twentieth century began as a predominantly white male-dominated literature, on the heels of 19th century romantic literary expression, such as within the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Stephen Crane, and others. Similarly, in the early decades of the 20th century, American literature was dominated by the likes of William
Psychology and Literature Both psychology and literature explore how people interact with each other. Both psychology and literature explore how prior events affect what follows. Both psychology and literature look at how a person grows, develops and changes over time. However, psychology looks at how events affect what people do and how they act in very precise ways, while literature fictionalizes and supposes what an imaginary person might do. Psychology looks
classroom, regardless of the age of the learner, we realize that there are multiple learning styles and responses to divergent stimuli. The modern pedagogical environment is faced with a number of challenges that are directly related to learning. In fact, as an educational pendulum swings, we find any number of methods that are thought to be new and innovative; yet it is sometimes the tried and true methods that
OCTAVIO PAZ "TRANSPLANTED LANGUAGES" Octavio Paz's 1990 Nobel Lecture accentuated the issue of transplanted languages and the literature that emerged in a transplanted culture. Latin-American and Caribbean literature is good example of the use of transplanted languages since the influence of European and American cultures is quite pronounced. When people migrate from one place to another or are forced to endure foreign rule, the impact on the language is usually the
Courtly love your purchase. COURTLY LOVE AND MIDDLE AGES LITERATURE In this paper, we shall study the tradition of Courtly love in the Middle Ages as reflected by literary works produced in that period. The paper will first focus on what the exact nature of Courtly Love, then proceed to briefly discuss its development and finally take into account the literary works of Middle Ages that contained elements of this tradition. Courtly love
Abbe Prevost's tale of Manon Lescaut performs several different functions at once. It is in part a cautionary story. It is in part a push to create a fully modern sensibility in French literature. It is in part an exploration of the trope of Romanticism. And in all of these things it is partly a story about the New World, for to Prevost, as to other Europeans of his time,
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now