Jeff Saut Presents: The Emerald City argues that The Wizard of Oz was
based on an economic and political commentary surrounding the debate over “sound money†that occurred in the late 1800s…. Baum’s book was penned in 1900 following unrest in the agriculture arena (read: farmers) due to the debate between gold, silver, and the dollar standard. The book, therefore, is supposedly an allegory of these historical events making the information easier to understand. In said book, Dorothy represents traditional American values. The Scarecrow portrays the American farmer, while the Tin Man represents the workers, and the Cowardly Lion depicts William Jennings Bryan. Recall that at the time Mr. Bryan was the official standard bearer for the “silver movement,†as well as the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate of 1896. Interestingly, in the original story Dorothy’s slippers were made of silver, not ruby, implying that silver was the Populists’ solution to the nation’s economic woes. Meanwhile, the Yellow Brick Road was the gold standard, and Toto (Dorothy’s faithful dog) represented the Prohibitionists, who were an important part of the silverite coalition. The Wicked Witch of the West symbolizes President William McKinley and the Wizard is Mark Hanna, who was the chairman of the Republican Party and made promises that he could not keep. Obviously “Oz†is an abbreviation for “ounce.â€
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I have also heard that you can put yourself into the right frame of mind, pop in “The Wizard of Oz”, mute the volume, and as soon as the lion roars at the beginning of the opening credits, turn on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and enjoy…
Yes, this is what I’ve heard about that book/movie. What I don’t understand is, how exactly would free silver have helped farmers as a group? I mean, it seems it would only help the current group of farmers, at the expense of all future borrowers. A switch to free silver would simply have the effect of stiffing the farmer’s creditors (by allowing them to pay back loans in debased dollars). But that only works once: then interest rates on all future loans are revised upward to account for the new inflation risk.
What jerks.
20 years ago my wife had told me about this allegory in “Wizard of Oz” about the gold standard and the alliance of the American spirit, Agriculture, and Manufacturing (Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man) except that the Cowardly Lion represented Britain as he was most reluctant to follow the Yellow Brick Road.
See also Wikipedia’s page on Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The classic reference on the economic interpretation of Oz is Hugh Rockoff’s “The ‘Wizard of Oz’ as a Monetary Allegory†(Journal of Political Economy, August 1990). Excerpt here.
Wasn’t this theory debunked a long time ago? Nobody at the time thought of it that way, it was just people later that tried to insert that message into it.
I think it was Baum himself who denied all of this “allegorical” stuff. Either way the allegory doesn’t fit in with his other books like “Queen Zixi of Ix”.
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