Lost History? (Wizard of oZ) Essay

Submitted By star043
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While movies are very entertaining they sometimes have a habit of omitting crucial parts of a story. Especially when turning a historical book into a movie. For example: After a succession of weak presidents in the 19th century, there was a demand for change in America. Deep in the midst of this call for change was the election of 1896 -William Jennings Bryan vs. William McKinley. Jennings was a democrat who favored adding silver to America’s monetary system while McKinley was a tightwad who favored the business side of America. Out of this whole election came one of America’s greatest books. “The Wizard of Oz” written by L. Frank Baum was a children’s book but also was an allegory to what was happening in America during this time period.
Since the book was such a cultural hit it only made sense to turn it into a movie.
One of the first Wizard of Oz movies was published in 1939. It was also one of the first colored movies of that time. Although the movie was great, because it was made mostly for entertainment purposes some of the historic content from the book was lost in the film. One of the major and most obvious ones was the silver shoe. In the book the silver shoe represented the need to add silver to the monetary system. The shoe was Dorothy’s only way to get back home. In the movie, however, Dorothy’s shoes were ruby. The ruby shoes bear no historical connection. Another aspect of history lost in the movie was the way silver and gold were put together. For example in the book when the Winkies mended the tin woodman they also fix his ax. His new ax was made of gold and the handle was polished until it “glistened like burnished silver.” “The new ax is a good symbol of a point often made by the Populists: that they did not want to replace a gold standard with a silver standard; they wanted a genuine bimetallic standard.” The movie failed to emphasize this.
While some very important parts of history were lost in the movie, it still managed to maintain some historic content. One of the major ones was the yellow brick road. The yellow brick road stood for the gold standard. The gold standard at the time was apart of America’s monetary policy. The good witch said to “follow the yellow brick road” which lead to Emerald city. Emerald city in the book was emphasized a little bit more. Dorothy and her friends had to wear glass spectacles so that they wouldn’t get blind by the “brightness and glory” of Emerald city. In the
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